Visitors from the Future
by xiaoj
Summary: AU Time Travel. One teenage female & two kids landed in the Cross Academy's Woods surrounding the Moon Dormitory - out from nowhere in particular. Who are they & Why are they calling Kaname and Zero - 'Daddy' & 'Father? Completed! Sequel to Come Soon, Look out for 'Embracing the Future',
1. Chapter 1

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Summary: (AU) - Includes Time Travel. One unknown teenage female & Two kids landed in the Cross Academy's Woods surrounding the Moon Dormitory - out from nowhere in particular. Who are they and Why are they calling Kaname Kuran and Kiryuu Zero - 'Daddy' & 'Father'? Not only that - why are they emitting the aura of both a Pureblood Vampire and a Vampire Hunter at the same time?

---

Chapter 1 - Time Vortex

Silence reigned. The stinging scent of blood lingers on within a desolated villa building, standing tall on a hill top of a country-side. Bodies of dead corpse lays forgotten and scattered about the interior and the outside of the villa house - taking a moment of minute before they turned into nothing but sheer dusts.

Deeper within the inside of the villa house, two men fought valiantly against the swarming troops of enemies. Slightly further behind them, stood a trio of youngsters - one teenage girl, and two little boys of six.

"Akane, take them and go - immediately! Never mind which point of the past - did you guys ended up returning to, in particular. Just get the two of them out of here, right now!" The silver-haired man ordered, as he fired yet another shot towards one of the approaching enemy.

The enemies were none other than what was being known to the rest of the vampires society as the 'Level E'. The ultimate end level for an ex-human vampire, which just happened to be on the very last position within the vampires ranking chart.

About two centuries had passes by since the battle against Rido Kuran - that took away the life of the Pureblood Princess, Yuuki Kuran. Though unbelievable, both somehow Kiryuu Zero - the ex-human and the Pureblood - Kaname Kuran, had found love along the way.

Life had pretty much continues on since then, and Kaname Kuran still continues to promote peace and co-existence among humans and vampires alike. With the passing of Kaien Cross sometime after Yuuki herself, Kaname Kuran had took on the responsibility of keeping the school operated himself - while engaging another trusted candidate from the human world to continue leading the school as the Chairman.

The night class still existed within the Cross Academy - only it was now no longer leaded by Kaname Kuran. Instead, it was now under the lead of a new batch of students comprising of the off-springs of the majority of the original night class members.

Still, that ultimate aim of attaining co-existence among humans and vampires was still far from being accomplished. Every now and then, things are bound to get nasty. This time around, the situation was simply getting out of control - not wanting to have the kids hanging around to witness just how 'gloomy' the current situation is, at this point of time.

Kaname Kuran had simply decided to send the kids away for their own good, and it was also partly to keep the two younger boys safe from dangers. The two boys had been a miracle for both Zero and himself, seeing as they had been their own flesh and blood - created and made possible with the aid of an ancient spell from centuries ago. Due to that sheer fact itself, the two boys was always been seen as an outcast by the New Vampire Council and the hunters' association - alike.

The elder female child had been their daughter since they decided to adopt her, about a century ago - when her family members were brutally slaughtered by the hunters' association. For her mother had simply decided to go against the family ideals and associated herself with a noble-ranking vampire. The girl, herself had a narrow escape from the fate of 'death' only because - she had been away visiting a family friend's house.

"Akane, hurry up with the process." Kaname Kuran called out to the group of youngsters, hovering at the back of the room.

The girl, going by the name of Akane did heard what the two adults were telling her; but she did not respond to any of their calls. For what she had been entrusted to do was something which required a whole lot of attention and focus, a moment of distraction was enough to ruin things for them all.

"Alright, here it goes ... Heed my words and my commands - the time of gate, I hereby summoned you to me - Time Vortex!"

After what seemed to be an eternity, when in actual fact - only five minutes had gone by since the start of the preparation ritual; the girl finally opened her mouth to speak.

Almost promptly, following the end of her words - a giant black hole appeared in the middle portion of a wall situated within the room.

"Done! The two of you hurry up and get in there, I'll followed shortly." Akane barked out an order to the two boys whom seemed to be in a daze-like manner; and when she failed to get any response out from them. She had all but dragged the two boys towards where the hole was and dumped them both in - roughly.

Turning back to the two adults whom were still fighting off the enemies, trying to gain them time for their escape - Akane called out for their attention.

"Dad ... Father ... Please do take care!" With that said, Akane turned away and stepped within the black swirling hole herself - before murmuring yet another chantation to close off the gate of time.

"Kaname - I think that's the first time, Akane had ever called you 'father' since we adopted her." The silver-haired man, commented dryly.

"...I know, and Zero - On the count of five, please turn and run. I'm going to bring down this whole place." Kaname Kuran told his silver-haired companion, as he started counting mentally before releasing his powers in full-fledge.

---

Meanwhile, at another time period - a giant black hole opened up and deposited the three time travellers from the top of the sky.

"Ouch!"

"Damn!"

"Shit!"

All the three voices called out at once, as they landed hard on their bottoms upon the rough bald surface of the grasses within the woods of somewhere - in the past.

"... Where are we now?" The boy with wavy brown hair and lilac eyes, peered about their surrounding area warily and asked.

The eldest of the trio, stood up and surveyed the area - narrowing her eyes as she tried to pin-point their exact location amidst the dark.

"... No need to guess where we are now, I think the answers' clear enough ... " The other member of the trio, suddenly spoke up - catching the duo's attention.

"What do you mean? ... Never mind, forget that I'd asked." Akane's voice faded off, when she heard rapid footsteps heading towards their direction.

"Hey! It's night fall now, and you people should not be out here. Get back to your dorm - right ... " Yuuki Cross's voice faded, once she registered the fact that the group of trio which she had came across while conducting her routine patrolling check - was not anyone whom she had seen before in the academy.

"... Under usual circumstances, I would have taken your advice and head back to the dorms - but I'm afraid that would be kind of impossible, at this point of time. Seeing as, I had no particular idea of whether my dorm room exists - in this particular time frame. Ms. Yuuki Cross - I believe?"

It was Akane whom had spoken out, since neither of the two boys had any idea as to just whom exactly the female standing in front of them - was.

The two little boys whom had been listening on to Akane's words to the girl standing in front of them, finally realized that they had all landed in the midst of the woods surrounding the Moon Dormitory of the Cross Academy.

Just then, Akane frowned for she sensed several vampires heading towards their location. For a while, she had nearly panicked - but she forced herself to remain calm, as she regarded the two boys with intent while she asked.

"Did anyone of you injured yourselves - while landing? I hope not, cause' I'm in no condition to hold back several noble class vampires whom are in the midst of a bloodlust. "

The two boys shared a look among themselves, before shaking their heads in unison and said. "Come on, give us some credit - Akane. As though, we're that stupid enough to injure ourselves before we even figure out just where exactly - did we ended up at. "

"... If its' not the two of you, then who's the one bleeding now? For I can sense at least four nobles, one pureblood and one level D heading towards us ... " Akane responded, before realization dawns in as she turned towards the female guardian whom was still standing in front of them, apparently in shock.

"...Ms. Cross, you're bleeding." Akane commented, drawing the said female out from her daze-like manner.

"What? ...Oh, shit!" Yuuki Cross groaned aloud, and nearly slapped herself hard on the forehead.

"..." The trio said nothing, but sighed inwardly at just how clumsy and absent-minded, the female guardian was.

---

That was exactly how Kiryuu Zero; Kaname Kuran and his group of vampire friends - found them, later on. The unknown trio standing together and looking on in amusement as Yuuki Cross tried desperately to stop her wounded knees from bleeding. Apparently, Yuuki had gotten her knees scratched across a rough surface earlier while jumping down from the higher trees, upon discovering the trio's untimely arrival from the middle of nowhere. Hence, resulting in her bleeding injury.

"Yuuki - is everything alright?" Kiryuu Zero asked, looking towards his guardian friend for an answer.

He knew it could not be the fault of the night class, this time around - since he had arrived at the site together with those vampires. So just what exactly is the reason behind Yuuki's blood being scented in the air?

"Ah ... Zero, nothing to worry about. I kind of fell and scratched my knees on the rough surface of the ground, a while ago. "

"I see ... and Yuuki, who are these people?" Kaname Kuran asked, politely while eyeing the trio standing by the side with wary eyes.

"Yes, Yuuki - I would like to know that too ... Why are you hanging around these 'vampires' - from outside ... " Zero added in, as an afterthought - too.

"..." Akane fought to keep herself from wincing upon sensing the underlying disgust hidden behind Kiryuu Zero's words - when he mentioned the terms 'vampires'.

No sooner had Zero finished speaking, there was a movement of swift action and when he looked back down - again. He was met up by the sight of a vampire child with wavy brown hair attaching to the front of his pants, hugging his legs - preventing him from moving.

The same could be said for the opposite side of the woods, where the vampires of the night class had been standing together. Kaname Kuran was now facing the other child with silver hair, the only difference was that the child did not attached himself to the pureblood's legs. Namely, because - Aidou Hanabusa was in the way; hindering the child's initial actions.

Silence, followed by the subsequent movements of the boys' lips - the term 'Daddy', 'Uncle Aidou' and 'Father' was out from their mouth - before anyone else could stopped them.

"Shit!" was the only word Akane could uttered aloud, before all hell break loose and chaos reigned.

~to be continued~

Date started: 26/04/09

Date completed: 26/04/09

Date edited: 26/04/09 


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Pardon my grammar mistakes which I would no doubt made, while in the process of writing this fic. For - it has been a very long time since I wrote something in English. I'm working in a Chinese operation company, and I am recently using more chinese in terms of writing - as compared to English. Therefore, I might be having some problems switching in between both languages - these days. Reviews are always welcome, but not mandatory. Flames will be tolerated mildly, or otherwise will be ignored altogether.

Before I proceeded on to the main story of the chapter, it has come to my attention that some of you had wanted me to mention a little bit more about the ancient spell which enables Kaname and Zero to have kids. Fret not, it will eventually be explained - though not in full details; but I'll make sure that it will be enough to give you people at least a general idea of how it came about; and what does the spell required for it to work. As for the 'Time-Vortex' issue, it will be covered within this particular chapter. So now, without further ado - Enjoy!

---

Chapter 2 - The Unbelievable Future!

Silence. The entire woods were surrounded and engulfed in complete silence; everyone appeared to be staring at the wavy haired boy in shock.

"What did you just call Zero? " It was Yuuki Cross, whom had finally gathered up her courage to ask the little boy whom had taken to 'attach' himself, to the front of Kiryuu Zero's pants.

The little boy in question looked up at the female guardian with his beautiful lilac eyes, and a boyish smile as he repeated the word 'Daddy'. This time around, he said it loud enough for everyone to literally hear the word coming out from his lips - just fine.

"..." The silver-haired guardian said nothing, merely continue to stare down at the vampire child. All the while sensing that practically everyone's gaze was upon him - even those members from the night class were looking on in anticipation as well. In particularly, the pureblood's gaze upon him was the hardest to ignore - since it takes up all his self-control to not simply point his hidden bloody rose gun towards the former; and reacting to the situation based on his flaring hot, strong hunter's senses.

Honest to speak, Kiryuu Zero was puzzled beyond reasonings. The more he observed the boy standing in front of him, the more he find the said boy resembling a certain pureblood whom he had grown accustomed to loath in every sense. He would have preferred the term 'hate' if possible, but unfortunately the level of his hatred towards the said pureblood was nothing but mild if he were to compare them to Shizuka Hiou. The only other pureblood whom he had gotten to know previously, and unfortunately enough; just happened to be the very same pureblood whom had wiped out his family members and turned him into an ex-human, much to his frustration.

How he wished he could have simply told the boy that he was not whom the boy had thought him out to be, but somehow that would be impossible too. Since the boy had obviously inherited his family's unique lilac eyes; and that alone was enough to increase the chance and possibility of the boy being related to him. Unless, he had some unknown family members loitering somewhere out there still living and breathing - and the boy had somehow mistaken him for someone else; Kiryuu Zero found himself unwillingly stuck in this particular strange situation as the boy's 'Daddy'.

---

"... There it goes, again ... Akira's trying to act all innocent again ... " The silver-haired boy, whom had wandered off towards the direction where the majority of the night class members stood together as a group - about the same point of time where his twin had headed for the guardian's direction, finally spoke up.

"Kid, stay where you are ... I'll not have you moving any closer to Kaname-sama. Although, I probably shouldn't be saying this to a mere kid but who knows what you might be capable of doing - being a vampire child and all ... " Aidou Hanabusa interjected, his tone hard and firm with seriousness as he stepped forth and stood in the way between the silver-haired child and his pureblood leader, Kaname Kuran.

The silver-haired boy blinked twice, before lifting up his head slowly and looked up at the blue-eyed blond vampire. For a while, he seemed to be thinking about something - before he finally made up his mind to simply take a page out of his twin siblings' earlier actions, and dropped yet another bombshell piece of information upon the whole lot of them.

"Aa ... Uncle Aidou, it's nice to see you - again. Though, you look far more younger than what I remembered - that is ... " The silver-haired boy said, smirking inwardly as he knew exactly which buttons to push in order to irritate the said vampire.

Indeed, no sooner had he finished off that sentence of his - Aidou Hanabusa was off into yet another of his rants. Thus, Aidou had effectively forgotten about the idea of preventing the boy from approaching his beloved pureblood leader.

Kaname Kuran had to refrain himself from smirking outright, he had heard and seen how the silver-haired boy had managed to steer Aidou's attention and focus away from them both. He had to admit, the boy was good at manipulation - or at the very least, the boy knew how to 'irritate' and 'distract' Aidou from carrying out an initial task which the former had set out to accomplish from the start.

"I know this probably isn't really a good time to comment about something like this ... but heck, who cares. Once again, 'Father' - you're right, when you claim that Aidou Hanabusa makes a very fun candidate to tease and poke fun at. " The silver-haired boy, commented with a smirk of his own as he looked up at the pureblood - Kaname Kuran, whom he knew was currently eyeing him with intent. If Akatsuki Kain and the rest of the night class members had not been surprised by the boy's words to Aidou Hanabusa in prior, they certainly were stunned now. Initially, they had all thought that the boy was calling Aidou 'Uncle' just to spite or perhaps, irritate the former. Now though, they have a suspicion that the boy had actually meant what he said to the usually hyperactive vampire before.

Since, the boy had obviously done something which neither of them had thought the notion of it possible - prior to now. The boy had actually called their beloved pureblood leader, Kaname Kuran - 'Father'. Not just calling, the boy had literally addressed the former as such - face to face, in person.

Behind Kaname Kuran, Ruka Souen was seen visibly bristling with anger at the sheer notion of that silver-haired kid's guts to refer to their leader as his potential 'Father'. Akatsuki Kain merely arched an eyebrow up in surprise upon hearing the kid's words but had wisely remained silent, since he thought this is defintely something which he had no intention to get himself involved in.

The Vice-President of the Moon Dorms, Ichijo Takuma though - was busy flickering his gaze between the two little boys. Observing each of them in details; before he opened up his mouth and said.

"Erm ... guys, don't you people just find it creepy that the two boys look so much alike with Kiryuu-kun and Kaname-sama? "

"... Now that you've mentioned it, the boy in front of Kaname-senpai does look a little similar to how Zero had appeared to be like, when he was first adopted and brought in by the Chairman - several years ago. " Yuuki Cross commented, as she stepped closer to inspect the silver-haired boy in detail.

"Yes, and the boy in front of Kiryuu-kun look just like how Kaname had looked when he's younger - too. " Ichijo Takuma added, as he ventured closer towards the silver-haired guardian such that he could assess the other boy's appearance at a nearer distance.

---

Akane, whom had been hiding in the shadows and watching the whole scenario played itself out over the past few minutes - decided that it was simply time for her to make her entrance; before the situation gets more chaotic out here. She had, after all, no intention to be dealing with a whiny Aidou Hanabusa - since that will required a lot of patience and self-control to prevent herself from blasting the said vampire to hell, with one of her favourite nasty anti-vampire charms.

Though, the chances of witnessing a vampire using one of those anti-vampire charms from hunters' origin was kind of rare, with the exception of Kiryuu Zero - thus far. However, that was merely due to the fact that Kiryuu Zero had been from a line of well-known clan of vampire hunters. Therefore, it would not be that strange to chance upon the said silver-haired guardian using such charms - for this little piece of information was already considered a common knowledge, among both the hunters' and the vampires'.

However, that rule would not have applied to Akane - herself. Thus, she knew if she were to lose her patience and started using one of those charms, she would have ended up getting herself into deeper trouble than she already was having on her plate, now. Even up until this point of time, Akane still had no idea how she should go about explaining the reasons behind the sudden appearance of the two boys and herself, to the group of humans and vampires alike that were busy observing them.

Frankly speaking, even if she were to come outright and inform them that they were from the future and had somehow managed to get themselves landed back in the past - while trying to get away from certain dangers back in their own time-line. Akane highly doubt that anyone would have believed her words for it, since the idea of time-travelling did sound a little too extreme for the humans to digest, and a little too unbelievable for the vampires to stomach as well. Still, she knew the need for her to explain herself would be unavoidable; and now she could only cross her fingers and hope that they could simply listened and hopefully, take her words for it.

"Alright, pardon me for interrupting. Is there any chances of us having the discussion or upcoming conversation, somewhere else perhaps? I'm not sure about you people, but its' kind of getting colder around here. Oh, and I should probably apologized on behalf for the two boys' crude behavior, if any ... " Akane said, as she stepped out from her hidden position within the shadows of the night.

The sudden intrusion of her voice caused several startling reactions from the people whom were present, Kiryuu Zero had all but went for his hidden gun - only his logic of wanting to refrain from scaring the little vampire child whom was still hugging his pants, preventing him from revealing the said gun.

Yuuki Cross had aimed her anti-vampire weapon - the 'Artemis' towards her, again. The night class members were namely, staring at her with wary; trying to see if she would be a danger to their pureblood leader. Kaname Kuran, the pureblood leader, himself was the only one whom was still calm and collected as he addressed her.

"So, you had finally decided to speak up ... Here, I was thinking just how long do you intend to simply stay in the shadows and watched us all in silence. "

Akane winced, though there was no hints of anger coming from the pureblood - the warning was clear enough to her. Still, she shrugged before responding to the former's words.

"Well, I certainly had not been expecting them to wander off by themselves. Towards you people, no less. I thought they had had better sense in them, to try something like that. But I guess, their emotions at this moment in time had somehow over-ride their logical mind. Thus, pushing them to attempt such a reckless acts on their part. "

"Then, perhaps - you might have the answers to most if not all of our inquiries? " The pureblood asked, or rather demand it in an eloquent manner.

"... Well, I had to admit - I do have them, the answers to your doubts and queries. However, I must insist that we move our conversation elsewhere. Dawn is breaking, I might add - and its' late for your kind of people. Perhaps, it might be better if we shifted ourselves towards the Moon Dorms, such that the conversation may be carried out in a more comfortable setting ?" Akane suggested, glancing over to where the Moon Dormitory building had stood before turning her attention back to the pureblood.

"Kaname-sama? " The Vice-President, Ichijo Takuma prompted. The green-eyed blond vampire had thought the girl's suggestion to be wise, but dared not speak or act upon it - until, their pureblood leader gave him the cue to do so.

Slowly and warily, Kaname Kuran nodded. Both Akane and Ichijo Takuma heaved a sigh of relief upon the pureblood's actions, the former wanting to avoid drawing more attention to herself, than necessary. Whereas, the latter wanting to avoid staying out in the day-light; since the sun rays would gave him a headache which he wanted very much to avoid, unless absolutely necessary.

"Good, please do lead the way - then. Speaking of which, Ms. Cross - I would appreciate if you could head off and fetch the Chairman. He need to be present during the discussion as well, and I might as well get the explaination process over and done with, at one go. I do not wish to repeat them again, to the Chairman at another point of time."

Yuuki need not be told twice, she was gone as soon as Akane diverted her attention away from the said female guardian of the Cross Academy, turning them towards the direction of one very grumpy looking - Kiryuu Zero.

"As for Kiryuu-san, please come along with us as well. I know, you detest the idea of spending time in the presence of the night class members - but please, do me a favour and just tag along for now. While you're at it, do pick up Akira as well - I believed he's having trouble keeping his eyes open, already. " Akane instructed, still eyeing the silver-haired guardian with intent.

She watched with mild amusement glinting at the back of her eyes, while Kiryuu Zero seemed to be battling with his inner-conflicts upon the sheer notion of the need to carry a 'vampire' in his arms. Akane knew whatever nasty feelings that the silver-haired guardian may have against 'vampires' of all nature, the said guardian's still a care-taker by nature. Therefore, she had no doubt that the silver-haired guardian would caved eventually - especially when Akira were to pull on his best 'puppy-eyes' look upon the former.

A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as she watched as the silver-haired guardian bending down, such that he could reach the little boy of six. Then straightening himself upright again, with the boy settled nicely within his arms and hugging his neck to remain balance.

Turning back towards the members of the night class, Akane nodded towards the pureblood leader to start leading the way. While she reached for the silver-haired boy's hand, and tugged the said boy along with her as they walked all the way towards the gate of the Moon Dormitory.

---

Upon their arrival at the front gate of the Moon Dormitory building, the members of the night class had then finally noticed the girl's attire. The girl had been wearing the summer version of the day-class uniform of the Cross Academy, and it was practically winter - these days. No wonder the girl had been complaining about being cold, a little while ago when they had been back in the area of the woods.

"Akane ... Can I have hot cocoa before retiring for the day? " The silver-haired boy, was not faring too good himself and had finally spoke up with a slight shivering against the cold weather.

"... " Akane blinked, before responding. "I don't know - I guess you had to ask Kaname-sama, yourself. This is the Moon Dormitory, after all. "

The reaction was prompt enough, following the end of Akane's response - the silver-haired boy had shifted his glance towards the elder pureblood vampire, and asked. "So, may I have a cup of hot cocoa before retiring for the day - Father? "

Upon the silver-haired boy's statement, Akane had to bite her lips to prevent herself from grinning. As practically everyone's eyes were upon the pureblood now, waiting to see the former's reaction at being called 'Father' the second time in the night.

It took Kaname Kuran a great deal of his self-control to simply not just snapped, upon feeling everybody's eyes upon him. To make it worst, the Chairman and Yuuki had arrived at the gate of the Moon Dormitory - at this particular moment in time, as well.

"Why?! I didn't know that you had a son this old, already ... Kaname-kun?! Who's your wife, and why haven't you invited me to your wedding ceremony? " The Chairman had all but gushed out in pure delight and enthusiasm upon hearing the silver-haired boy's statement.

"... Daddy, who's this weird man? " As if the situation had not been tense enough, the boy whom had been in the silver-haired guardian's arms had to speak up, and make his presence known too.

"... " Kiryuu Zero felt a vein popping up somewhere on his forehead, as he felt his nerves pulsing with irritation and frustration.

Too bad, the Chairman had already heard the other boy's statement and was now looking at Kiryuu Zero in a new light. "Why, he's such a beautiful boy ... Is that your child, Zero?! Hey, but he looked more like Kaname than you - though ... Then again, the other boy was the exact opposite ... "

Akane would have laughed aloud if it were not for the dark look that was flashing on the pureblood's delicate features, and the pure aura of fury rolling off a certain silver-haired ex-human vampire, standing some distance away from her.

"Chairman Cross, If I hear one more stupid word from you ... adopted father or not, I'll kill you! " Kiryuu Zero had all but growled, and would have send a punch towards the former way if it had not been the fact that he had a vampire child clinging on to him for support.

"Yes, Chairman Cross. I can very well assure you that I had yet to be married. Believe me when I said I would send you an invitation to my wedding ceremony if I ever decided to get myself hitched with a bride. " Kaname Kuran responded, keeping his face blank and void from expression despite his darkening mood that is threatening to spill, every minute.

The Chairman of the Cross Academy gulped nervously, facing the wrath of his adopted son was one thing. Risking the anger of the pureblood was another thing entirely, and thus he wisely opted to remain silent for the next hour to come, if the conversation was to take that long - eventually.

"... Can we just get in there, already? The issue of hot cocoa aside, hot water would be just fine. " Akane interrupted, for she was starting to feel the backlash of the use of 'Time Vortex' setting in on her.

"Aa... and who is this charming little girl? " The Chairman started, only to be silenced with a threatening glare from Akane.

"Akane, that's my name. Secondly, I'm not a little girl - I'm sixteen now. " Akane gritted out in frustration, before deciding to simply take things in her own hands and pushed open the gate to the Moon Dormitory without waiting for the lead of Kaname Kuran.

If the members of the night class were surprised by just how familiar Akane had been with the layout of the Moon Dormitory, they certainly did not make any comments of it. In reality, Akane just knew where to go; and which way to turn - in order to reach the front door of the Moon Dormitory building. Since, she had knew the layout of the Cross Academy by heart - in her own time period.

The front door had been locked on the inside of the building, and Akane had no intention of getting anyone whom was within the building to open up the door for them. Seeking assistance from the current inhabitants of the said building whom were standing behind her was the very last thing on her mind, and so - she decided to do things her way.

Turning towards the silver-haired boy standing by her side, Akane asked. "Subaru, if you wanted your hot cocoa ... then please do me a favour and open up this door, for me. "

The silver-haired boy nodded, and shifted his attention towards the door. Focusing his sole attention upon the lock of the door, Subaru willed his powers to cooperate with him as he mentally instructed for his blessed powers to 'open' up the door for him. Once successfully achieved, he stepped aside and allowed the elder girl to push open the doors with her hands.

The first thing Akane did was to hole herself up in front of the fireplace, heaving a sigh of relief as she did so. Leaving behind a whole group of people whom was staring at her with unreadable expressions on their faces.

"Akane ... " The sudden sound of Subaru's voice jarred her out of her trance-like mood, as she shifted her glance towards the awaiting group of vampires, and humans.

"Aa... I almost forgotten about where we are. I apologized for zoning out on you people, but well ... can't really blame me. The ritual of summoning forth the 'Time-Vortex' took more energy out from me, than what I've been expecting it to be. " Akane said, as she desperately tried to force herself out of the sudden drowiness that seemed to be setting in on her.

---

"Time-Vortex? What's that? " Yuuki Cross asked, tilting her head to the side as she tried to comprehend the idea of it.

"... A giant hole that ripped through time - apparently. " Zero responded, dryly as he quoted an explanation off from an ancient book of spells that he had somewhat chanced upon back in his childhood days.

That book of spells had been found in one of his mother's family home library; and was considered a book of taboo practices among his mother's family clan members. That portion of the library had been off-limits to all, except selected members of the family - and he would have never found that book if he had not been playing hide-and-seek with Ichiru in that library, back then.

"Huh? " Yuuki blinked, confused by Zero's sudden desire to speak.

However, Zero refused to elaborate and instead turned his gaze towards the girl named Akane, again. This time around, he was no longer confused, merely feeling baffled. By now, he had managed to get the idea that the trio had arrived from somewhere in the future, through the use of the 'Time-Vortex'.

What he failed to comprehend was why the ritual spell of 'Time Vortex' was used and activated, from what he had read and known about the said ritual spell - it usually takes a lot of life energy out from the caster; and if the preparations steps were not being made carefully with accuracy. It might ended up resulting in the death of the caster, and the spell came attached with a special requirement. The caster would need to be both a hunter and a vampire, in order for it to be cast properly.

From what his hunter's senses had been picking up from the girl's aura, Zero knew that the girl was at least a noble-rank vampire. Yet, there was something different as well, something which he had trouble explaining.

"Zero? " Yuuki prompted, as Zero felt a poke in his ribs.

Zero blinked, before realizing with a start that he had subconsciously moved towards the front where the girl named Akane was seated in front of the fireplace.

Pretending that his aim was to place the little boy named Akira down on the ground, Zero stepped back slightly after settling the boy down from his arms. Straightening himself up, Zero regarded the girl with intent as he voiced his doubts across.

"You mentioned using the 'Time-Vortex' earlier on ... Are you a member of the Fujiwara clan? "

" ... Not exactly, but close enough ... I guess ... " Akane responded, with a sigh. "Figures that you would be the first to catch on and believe my words - no matter how ironic and unbelievable that this whole thing had seems to be. "

"Zero, what's going on? Do you know what's happening or whom they are? " Yuuki Cross asked, looking at her friend and fellow guardian with earnest anticipation.

The night class members had decided to shift their glance over to the fellow silver-haired guardian, as well. There was obviously, something which the said hunter knew and that they had no idea about going on, at work down here.

"... I have an idea of it ... "

"I sense an underlying 'but' somewhere in your statement, Zero ... " Yuuki continued to press on.

"I think, they are from the future ... "

"Huh? Zero, are you kidding me? From the future? How could they be here then? " Yuuki looked at her friend as though Zero had thought her stupid to believe such an obvious lie.

"... Yuuki, I'm not kidding you. They are indeed from the future, and I know it sounds unbelievable. However, it's the truth. The 'Time-Vortex' brought them here ... and the theory and concept for the 'Time-Vortex' did exist somewhere in the records of ancient ritual spells. Look them up, if you wanted to know more ... I'm sure Chairman Cross would have one of those books lying around somewhere, probably hidden. " Zero said, as he turned away from the girl whom he had grown to care and look after like a little sister since he was turned into an ex-human by Shizuka Hiou.

"Chairman? " The pureblood, Kaname Kuran shifted his attention away from the silver-haired ex-human towards the Chairman of the Cross Academy. Being an ex-hunter, Kaname was certain that Kaien Cross would know what Kiryuu Zero had been talking about, earlier.

The Chairman sighed, he had been hoping that Zero would continue on with the elaboration of the issue instead of throwing them to him, like a sack of potatoes.

"... The 'Time-Vortex' is an extremely complicated ritual spell to be cast, since the ancient times. It had first been created and made possible by a vampire turned hunter, during the times of war. The said vampire had fallen for a human despite his heritage, and when the first blood war came into play. He had turned hunter and faced off his own race, just for the sake of protecting his love from the harm's way.

Still, he had been too late - by the time he arrived by the side of his love, the former was too far gone to be save. Thus, he came up with the spell - hoping that he could go back in time to save his love's life. Still, the spell had proved to be too unstable for it to function properly. Thus, instead of the few hours which he had wanted to go back to, he had ended up going back a good old ten years prior to the birth of his lover. "

"And what happened next? " Yuuki asked, curious to see which way the story goes now.

"... That vampire ended up marrying his lover's mother, and his lover ended up being his daughter - instead. From then on, that spell had been classified as a forbidden spell to the members of his family clan and had been kept hidden within his own family home library, and continue to be passed down the generations. After a while, the book which that spell had been recorded within was listed as a taboo subject within the members of that particular clan, itself."

"And that clan would be what the public known as the 'Fujiwara' family - these days. " Kiryuu Zero finished for the Chairman, dryly.

"Tampering with time had been classified as a taboo issue because it may have very well changes the past or the future, be it intentional or unintentional. That was why it had been so highly frowned upon by the authorities of the hunter's association and the vampires' council. " Kaien Cross continued, with a sigh of weariness as he regarded the girl named Akane - with an unreadable gaze.

"I know ... but then Chairman Cross, the story which you had been telling before had another version. As you know, vampires can lived on for quite a few centuries. He still ended up together with his initial lover, once his first wife passes on. All he needed to do was to fake his own 'death' and come back alive using another name. No one would know about it, save for a certain few whom he had trusted enough to know about such issues. " This coming from Akane, whom quoted the other version from what she had seen being recorded in her birth parents' family library.

"That's true - too ... After all, that's a story of legend. No one actually knew the full extent of that story, what we knew was merely what had been passed on for generations between the hunters' families. Each family's version differs from one another, believing in what they choose to believe. Although, I've to say that I'm curious - are you the one whom activated the spell?" Kaien Cross shrugged his agreement, easily.

Akane nodded wearily, and said. "Yes, it was indeed me whom had activated the spell. Before you start, I'll have you known it was Kiryuu Zero whom told me to go ahead with it, and the suggestion had came from the lips of Kaname Kuran - himself. Therefore, if there's anyone whom you felt the need to blame - its' not me, but them both. The caster would need to be me, since I am the only one whom met all the basic requirement for the spell to work properly."

"Huh? What do you mean by that - basic requirement for the spell to work? " Yuuki asked, having not catching on to everything with regard to the spell - just yet.

"Yuuki, you have to be both a vampire and hunter in order to cast the spell ... remember what was being mention in the beginning of the story? " Kaname Kuran prompted, reminding Yuuki of the Chairman's story from before.

"Ah!? Does that means you are like Zero? " Yuuki had all but blurted out, causing the silver-haired hunter to frown. Thankfully, neither of the night class members had caught on to Yuuki's slip of tongue, and merely just thought Yuuki was referring to Zero's hunter heritage and not the fact that Zero had been an ex-human. Since, it was by far common knowledge that each hunter had a little of vampire in them - thus allowing them to hunt the vampires.

"... No, not exactly. I'm a vampire born of noble blood, but my mother was a hunter - or used to be one ... from the clan of the 'Fujiwara's. Though, she was disowned by her family when she associated herself with my father, and thus awakening her sealed up powers from her vampire's heritage. The 'Fujiwara's had been the direct descendents of that nameless vampire in that story earlier on, and most of the time they had been born humans. However, their vampire side would have awaken the instant they allowed themselves to be bitten by another vampire - Pureblood or not, matters not in their situation. " Akane responded, wearily.

"And what of the other two boys? Are they your siblings? Why are they calling Kaname-sama and Kiryuu, 'Father' and 'Daddy' respectively? " Akatsuki Kain broke in, unable to withstand the puzzling situation any longer and simply just wanted to get some sort of response to the nagging feeling that he had been feeling since he laid his eyes upon the two boys.

"Yes, and maybe you might be able to tell us why those two boy looks so much alike to both Kaname and Kiryuu-kun." This coming from the green-eyed blond vampire, Ichijo Takuma.

~ to be continued~

Date started: 28/04/09

Date completed: 28/04/09

Date edited: 28/04/09


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: I hope the explaination for the 'Time-Vortex' and how it works was clear enough in the last chapter, and here in this chapter - Kaname and Zero are in for a startling relevations! XD Oh, and yes - Zero does have some kind of relations to Akane, aside from being adopted father of her and all. However, I'm not going to reveal them at this point of time ... and anyway, I know its' insane for me to have two chapters up in a day ... but still, I can't help it. So please do enjoy!

---

Chapter 3 - The Unbelievable Future (Part 2)

For a while, Akane did not react. Rather, she did not want to react - for all she felt like doing now, was to curl up in one of the comfortable beds upstairs within the guest rooms of the Moon Dormitory and slept her fatigue off. Yet, somehow she knew that would be impossible. At least, until the night class members get their desired response from her.

How she wished she could have just dumped the task of explaining the two boy's identities to the boys' themselves. Yet, she knew that would be impossible - too. Since the boys' had apparently no idea how their beloved parents' had seemed to be loathing one another's presence at this point of time. Therefore, it was up to her - alone, to carry out that mudane task of explaining situation, again.

"... I guess, you can say that. They can be considered as my siblings - I guess. Since I was adopted by their parents ... " Akane responded to Akatsuki Kain's earlier question while a frown marred her features as she tried to come up with any possible ways that she could have wriggled her way out from the sheer idea of addressing the topic which Ichijo Takuma had brought up to everyone's attention, a while ago.

Unfortunately, there was none and now she could only hoped that both Kiryuu Zero and the rest of the night class members could let her finished her explanation without any bloodshed. The pureblood, she was not too worried - for she knew, Kaname Kuran would never allowed his temper to get the best of him. Therefore, she knew despite how disturbed the pureblood may be feeling during the midst of her elaboration on how those two boys had came about - Kaname Kuran would have enough sense in him to remain calm, at least until she finished her story.

"Well ... I would suggest for the whole lot of you to take a seat first - before I launched into the story of those two little boys. For, I feared it might be too much a shock for quite a number of you. Kiryuu-kun, may I suggest that you hand over your 'Bloody Rose' to the Chairman for safe-keeping, I want to have no bloodshed around here until I am done with the story-telling. Kaname-sama, it would be best that you seated yourself down for this story - too. Its' no where easier for you to stomach them, despite how level-headed you may be; at all times. "

The night class members shifted their glances among themselves uneasily, before heading for the sofa couch and seated themselves down - trying to make themselves, comfortable among the presence of the two guardians. Yuuki was already seated down by the side of the Chairman from before, and Kiryuu Zero unwillingly released his hold on the 'Bloody Rose' to the Chairman's palms.

After which, the Chairman proceeded on to pocket the 'Bloody Rose' into one of his coat's pocket; fully aware of his adopted son's gaze upon himself while he did so. Not wanting to be anywhere near the vampires, Kiryuu Zero settled on taking a seat on the high bar stool situated in front of a bar counter within the front lounging area of the Moon Dormitory. Kaname Kuran, settled himself into his 'chair' - the only single sofa arm-chair being situated within the room; as he waited patiently for Akane to start talking.

Beckoning towards the two boys, Akane started with the introduction of the boys' names to the audience crowd. "I guess, we've better started with their names first - then. "

"The silver-haired boy and the wavy-haired boy were actually twins; despite their differences in appearances. They were both six in terms of the vampires' age, and I'm not going to reveal just how old they are in terms of human age. Kiryuu Subaru is the name of the silver-haired boy, and Kuran Akira happens to be the name of the other boy. "

With that said, Akane waited for a moment. Letting everyone a couple of minutes to digest the fact, there was no other ways to get things across but to merely dropped off the piece of information like a bombshell. She knew it would have caused an uproar, for it certainly did - when the two boys were first born in their own future time frame.

Claiming the reaction to resemble anything like an uproar was putting it mildly, too mildly - in fact. It would have literally causes a bloodshed within the area of the Moon Dormitory itself - if it were not for the fact that both Ruka Souen and Aidou Hanabusa had been held back by Ichijo Takuma and Akatsuki Kain, themselves.

Kiryuu Zero, though would have pulled out his 'Bloody Rose' if it had not been the fact that it was now within the Chairman's pocket.

"What the hell?! The sheer idea of being related to that .../Kuran/ was just ... impossible! " Kiryuu Zero would have snarled out the term 'repulsive' or 'disgusting', but since neither of the terms he could have uttered aloud when the two boys were obviously staring up at him. Zero would have to settle with the word 'impossible', instead.

"...But the fact that we are both in front of you right now, had pretty much proven it - otherwise though. " Kiryuu Subaru, pointed out coolly and calmly, as he looked up bravely into the eyes of his 'Daddy'. Meanwhile, Kuran Akira observed his 'Daddy's reaction with sleepy eyes. It had been way past his sleeping hours by now, so he was not really in a mood to say nor do anything - unlike his elder twin sibling.

" ... " The sight of having his little mirror-image staring back up at him with a challenging glint shining within those chocolate eyes that seemed to remind him painfully of a certain pureblood vampire going by the name of Kaname Kuran, was unnerving for Zero.

Eventually, Zero found himself on the losing end of the staring 'match' with his supposed 'son' from the future, and ended up dropping himself back onto the bar stool wearily. Somehow, he felt all his energy depleting from him like a deflated balloon - thus leaving him alone to run on an 'empty tank'.

On the other hand, Kaname Kuran was more disturbed, than being angered by the sheer idea of what had been hinted by Akane on the future prospective of his relationship with the ex-human.

By claiming that the boys had been twins siblings, and were named Kiryuu and Kuran - respectively. The underlying message was clear enough, Akane was trying to inform them all that the two boys had been the future off-springs of both Kiryuu Zero - the ex-human, and himself.

It was no wonder that Aidou and Ruka had snapped, for those two had always seemed to adore him to an extent of idolization and worshipping. Thank goodness, Takuma and Akatsuki had enough senses to pull them back before they launched themselves at Kiryuu - whom appeared to be still feeling the urge to kill something, or someone.

"...Alright, people ... please do calm down. Like I say, its' hard to accept such an idea when it was first brought up to everyone's attention. However, I must insist for the whole lot of you to at least hear me out, with patience. After that, you guys can have your 'go' at one another but please, leave me out of it. "

Aidou and Ruka still appeared to be struggling against Akatsuki and Ichijo's wanting very much to break free from the two vampires' restrains and had their 'go' at the silver-haired guardian for 'tainting' their pureblood leader, in such a manner. Despite the fact that it would only be something that took place at another later stage of time, not anytime soon.

Still, the very notion of it had pissed them off and they felt the need to literally tear the silver-haired guardian to strips before the former even had a chance to 'taint' their leader.

"Aidou, Ruka - I would very much appreciate it, if the two of you could just calm down and refrain from any bloodshed within the academy grounds." Kaname Kuran eventually said, his tone hiding an underlying hint of warning being directed to the two agitated nobles.

"Yes, Kaname-sama! We'll do as you wish ... " Both Ruka and Aidou calmed themselves down, unwillingly. However, since their pureblood leader had openly denied them the authority to simply head up to the silver-haired guardian and attempted to have their very much desired 'go' at the former, all the could do now was to obey.

Heaving a sigh of relief that the two had somewhat calmed down now, Akatsuki Kain and the Vice-President of the Moon Dorms released their tight grip against the two previously bristling vampires. Although, they had both retained their gaze upon the two - lest they attempted to try something reckless, again.

---

"Is that the reason why you had wanted me to surrender my 'Bloody Rose' over to the Chairman in prior? You'd knew from that very moment, that I would resort to make a grab for that gun of mine - once you started revealing the mystery behind the boys' parentage? " Kiryuu Zero asked, sometime after he had managed to get his temper cool off, or at least under mild control.

Akane shrugged, and replied. "Well, you did warned me in prior - though. You mentioned that your temper had not been the best when being irritated, and especially so during this period of time-frame. Thus, you reminded me prior to the start of the ritual spell that I should perhaps 'confiscated' your gun if the 'Time Vortex' had brought us this far back in time."

"I see that you had decided to take the advices coming from my future self to heart ... and may I know, just how far back did you three ended up travelling through? "

Akane paused, her eyes searching Zero's for a moment before a frown sets in on her features. "Are you sure you want to know ? Not that I would have mind revealing that, but are you sure you want someone else to know your 'secret' ?"

For a while, Kiryuu Zero had no idea what Akane was going on about - until he recalled that aside from the pureblood, nobody else within the night-class had knew of his status as an ex-human.

"... Never mind, forget that I'd asked. " Zero muttered aloud, before shaking his head at his stupidity to be asking something that might threatened to blow his cover as a human-being away.

"So Akane-chan, does that means that the two little boys down there ... are the sons of Zero and Kaname-kun? " The Chairman, finished weakly. Cowering under the glares of the night class members and his adopted son, Kiryuu Zero.

Akane had to bite herself to hide a smile that was threatening to tug at the corner of her lips, as she nodded her response warily.

"Oh, so who's the 'mommy' then? " This coming from Yuuki, whom seemed to have digest the fact that those two boys were the potential future sons of the pureblood and her friend, far more easier than she could have adapted herself to the idea of time-travelling.

Upon her question, everyone turned startling eyes towards the naive looking female guardian. To which, Yuuki Cross merely rolled her eyes in response and said.

"Well, the boys were twins. They called Zero 'Daddy' and Kaname-senpai, 'Father' - unless there's a female character somewhere out there who's willing to be 'bed' by two males at the same time. There has been no mention of a 'mother' figure, thus far. Therefore, its' only understandable that between Zero and Kaname-senpai ... one of them must have been fulfilling the role of the 'Mommy' - isn't that right? "

"Yuuki!" Both Kaname Kuran and Kiryuu Zero had started at the same time, aghast by the sheer idea that Yuuki had brought up such an uncomfortable topic of discussion.

In response to both the pureblood and the silver-haired hunter's reactions, Yuuki Cross merely looked up at them with her most innocent expression.

"..." Akane was speechless, she had a sudden urge to pity both her adopted parents. Kiryuu Zero's current expression was a cross between annoyance and embarrassment. Although, Kaname's expression had betrayed nothing of his inner-most feelings; Akane was willing to bet that it would be something similar to the silver-haired guardian, too.

After all, it was practically common knowledge among the inner circle of Kaname Kuran's group and the Chairman, himself - that both Kaname Kuran and Kiryuu Zero had been arch-rivals when it comes down to the issue of winning the heart of one Yuuki Cross, by now. What they had not known was that Yuuki Cross was actually Yuuki Kuran - a pureblood princess, the sister and a potential fiancee to their pureblood leader.

That and the reason why Kaname Kuran had decided to continue letting the silver-haired hunter off the hooks, despite the numerous times which the former had attempted to challenge the pureblood's patience - was simply because Yuuki would be hurt, if Zero had been harmed by anyone else. Well, there was also the other possible reasons as to why Kaname had continue letting Zero lived on - but that would only be happening at a later stage of time.

'Who knows, if I'm lucky enough - I might get to witness how those two found and discovered the love which they had for one another, along the way ...' Akane thought, grinning inwardly at the alluring prospect of observing the two 'enemies turned lovers' adopted parents of hers', up front.

---

"... You know, I think Yuuki's right. Then again, both Kaname and Kiryuu-kun had been males ... so how did they ended up having children? " Ichijo Takuma questioned aloud.

Upon Ichijo Takuma's statement, Kiryuu Zero had blanched whereas the pureblood leader started to turn pale at his friend's words.

Kaname had seen how Subaru had opened up the door to grant them all entry into the building just now, and he knew enough to gather up the fact that Subaru must have been a pureblood, in order to wield such powers. Since the boys had been born twins, then Akira must be a pureblood as well.

In order for the boys to be born a pureblood, under usual circumstances both parents must be of equal bloodlines status. However, Kiryuu Zero was merely an ex-human and a male, on top of that. So how is it that between the two of them, they could have even pro-created among themselves in the first place?

Unless ... his future self had decided to use an ancient spell which one of his ancestors had somehow created by 'mistake' - back during the period of the first blood war.

During those times, pureblood females had been rare and thus often resulted in bloodshed between different pureblood clans as they fought for the hand of the said female. For those families whom had every intention to keep their bloodlines pure, they had resorted to making use of all their resources in order to attain their ultimate aim of not tainting their bloodlines. His family could be said the same, as well.

And it was during those times, when one of his ancestors had an unhealthy obsession with an ex-human boy which was highly frowned upon by the society back then. However, since his family clan had been pacifists for centuries, the other members of the clan had not made much comments upon the subject. Nonetheless, it had been rumoured that the spell had been discovered and first casted successfully by that particular ancestors of his, unintentionally.

It would appeared, that particular ancestor of his had been in the midst of exploring the idea of combining the use of a blood ritual and a charm to enhance the chance of fertility for unexpectant couples, within his own family compound when his ex-human lover had been unfortunate enough to get 'hit' by that charm, upon walking in on one of his experiment attempts.

The former had meant to cast the spell as 'Fertilitas nam Domina' - which meant 'fertility for lady' but had ended up saying 'Fertilitas nam Compleo' (fertility for man), instead when he had somehow mixed up the latin terms for a man and a lady. Funny enough, the blood ritual runes drawings which he had drawn earlier on - had somehow reacted to his mis-pronouned charm, and thus resulting in a new spell being created.

Although, further research work had been made upon the said spell after the end of the war. Its' results had shown that, in order for the spell to work 'well' on the males; the two person involved in the spell would need to have quite a high level of 'love' for one another, and they must be bonded by both the blood and the soul.

No ... don't even go there ... Kaname Kuran forced himself to snap out of his trance, not wanting to even consider the sheer possibility of the ex-human and himself, having 'love' for one another or being bonded in that manner. For it would have seemed too disturbing for him to stomach, at this point of time.

Shifting his attention back to the situation at hand, Kaname Kuran interrupted the ongoing discussion of whom was to be the potential 'mommy' in the relationship - drawing the discussion firmly, to a close.

"I believe that would be enough for tonight. It's late, and we should not be holding the guardians back anymore longer than necessary. I believe they would need some time to clean themselves up, before heading for their first class of the day." Kaname Kuran spoke up, his tone firm with the indication that there would be no rooms for further arguements.

"And what about them? " Kiryuu Zero started, eyeing the group of trio whom were trying very hard not to fall asleep from their position in front of the warm fireplace.

"..." Kaname Kuran looked at the trio for a moment, before speaking up - again. This time around, directing his words towards his friend and the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory.

"Takuma, please make the arrangements for them to stay in the guest rooms of our dorms - on a long-term basis. Since, we would have no idea when they would be leaving for their own time. "

With that, Kaname started to make his way towards the direction of the staircase. Pausing mid-steps, as he turned towards Akane and added. "You may wish to speak to the Chairman with regards to the issue of your education, while being here in this time period. I'm sure, I need not brief you on the rules and regulations of the Moon Dormitory - or do I have to? "

Akane nodded to the pureblood's words, and responded. "Yes, I'll be speaking to the Chairman in a while's time. And no, you have no need to brief me on the rules and regulations. I had them memorized from where I came from ... "

"Good, see that you break neither of those rules while you're staying here. " Kaname Kuran finished, as he continued his journey up the stairs.

Silence reigned, as nobody dared to speak until the figure of Kaname Kuran disappeared from their viewing range. Turning towards the green-eyed blond vampire, Akane make her request.

"Do you mind bringing them up to the guest room? I would like to speak with the Chairman first, but I don't think those two are in any condition to keep up with me ... They looked like they are going to fall asleep, in front of the fireplace - anytime soon. "

Ichijo Takuma blinked, surprised by the words tumbling out from the girl's lips that easily. "Sure, I don't mind ... "

Akane smiled, before adding on. "Thanks ... Uncle Taku ..." The last bit of her words, had came out sounding a little hesitant but still, she managed.

Ichijo Takuma had to refrain himself from grimacing when he heard the term 'Uncle' coming out from someone who's nearly as old as himself, finally he said. "Erm ... Akane-chan, do you mind if you dropped the 'uncle' thing? It makes me feel old, when I'm obviously not that old - yet. "

"Aa... I apologized, Takuma - then. If you don't mind me being rude, that is ... " Akane responded, feeling herself relaxing now that the hardest subject to be explained had been over and done with, for the time-being.

"No, that would be just fine. " Ichijo Takuma said, anything would be better than being called and referred to as an 'uncle'. At least, that was what he felt - at this point of time.

With that said, he gave the only female time-traveller a quick nod before heading towards the two boys and picked them both up effortlessly in his arms.

"I'll be situating them in the room down the hallway of the second storey. " The Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory said, as he passes by Akane.

Akane nodded, as she started heading for the Chairman's direction. By the time she reached the Chairman, she noticed that Yuuki and Zero had already left. Probably rushing towards the direction of the Sun Dormitories, such that they could prepared themselves for their first impending lessons of the day.

---

Approximately, an hour later - Akane found herself heading back towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory with a paper-bag full of Zero's old clothes as a kid, thanks to the Chairman's wonderful donation. Her other hand held another bag, only this time around, it just happened to be a new set of the long-sleeves black uniform for the day-class.

The Chairman had decided to let her join Yuuki's class as a transfer student, and school will start officially for her, the following day. At the same time, she would be required to help Yuuki and Zero out in their usual duties of controlling the crowd of fangirls during the change-over timing of the classes.

Staring at the now tightly closed door, Akane was wondering just how on earth could she get herself inside the said building, when she found the door being opened promptly by the Vice-President of the Dormitory - Ichijo Takuma, himself.

"Aa... Thanks. I was about to consider the option of 'breaking-in' through the windows, if you had not opened up the doors for me. " Akane commented, her expression a mixture of relief and wonders.

"It's alright, I figured someone else would have to sacrifice a little bit of the sleeping hours to wait for your return. Since neither of the night class members would be volunteering themselves, and I can't very well expect Kaname to wait for your return - so I guess, I'll have to be the one ... " The good-natured, sunny blond vampire responded, with a cheerful vibe in his tone.

Akane could not helped but smiled in response, "I know. Thanks again, and now that I'm finally back. You can go back to your room and hopefully catch some winks, before having to wake up and start a new day again. "

"Good, actually I'm so tired that I could just dropped 'dead' to the world. What do you have there in the bags? "

"Nothing much, just a set of the winter version of the day-class uniform and some clothes that belongs to Zero when he's younger. I can't really expect Akira and Subaru to keep wearing the same attire, on daily basis - Can I? The clothes does need to be launder, eventually ... and I'm rather tired, myself. Maybe we can continue the conversation, at another time - perhaps? " Akane responded, as she started to head up the stairs - turning towards the room where Ichijo Takuma had told her, that the boys would be staying in, earlier on.

Behind her, Ichijo Takuma mirrored her actions of heading up the stairs after he had closed the door which he had opened to allowed the former's entry in prior. "Right, and my room's down the left hallway of the third storey. Let me know if you need anything, during the period of your stay here in the Moon Dormitory."

"Sure, I'll keep that in mind. " Akane said, as she placed one of the bag down on the floor as she opened up the door leading to the guest room; before picking up the bag and slipped into the room - trying her best not to wake the two boys whom were now cuddling up to one another on the large canopy bed as they slept soundly.

Dropping off the two bags on one side of the room, Akane shrugged herself out from her summer school uniform but leaving her underwear on. After searching through the bags of clothes for a while, she finally managed to find an old t-shirt which belonged to Zero that fitted her and pulled it over herself. With that done, she dropped herself wearily onto the large canopy bed and fell asleep promptly when her head hit the pillow.

Before she felt her subconscious drifting off to the land of oblivion, she mentally made a note to head out shopping for clothes, once she had the chance to speak with the Chairman again. There was no way she could have keep on wearing the uniforms around, at the very least, she would be needing necessity garments such as the under-garments and the night-wear. She highly doubt that Yuuki's size would have suited her, and she highly doubt that the females from the night class would let her borrow any from their wardrobe.

~to be continued~

Date started: 28/04/09

Date completed: 28/04/09

Date edited: 28/04/09


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: In this chapter, you will get to see how Akane and the twins usually interact with one another. Also, you'll get to see a little bit of the relationship between Akane and Zero being revealed, and probably a little of how Zero had thought about the twins and Akane's sudden presence in his life.

---

Chapter 4 - Settling in!

"Akane! Come on, Wake up ... You can go back to sleep after you get us some food!" Kuran Akira tugged hard on the hair of his adopted sister, knowing that this would no doubt wake the sleepy girl from her 'dead' slumber.

"Ouch! Damn it, Akira - How many times must I tell you, not to pull my hair! " Akane grumbled, as she sat up unhappily in bed.

Akane was annoyed, and her temper had never been good after she was rudely awaken from her sleep. She knew that she probably should not be blaming the twins for waking her up, in order for her to get them some solid food. Since, they were still 'new' to the environment of the Academy. Unlike Akane, whom had pretty much memorized the layout of the academy by now and would know where to go in search for food or blood tablets, if she needed any.

"Subaru, what's the time now? " Akane asked, as she combed her fingers through her sandy brown hair - the only traits which she had inherited from her birth father.

"Five-thirty ... in the evening. " Subaru added the last bit, when he noticed how disoriented Akane had looked when he had first mentioned the time.

"... Three minutes, Get out now." Akane muttered aloud, shooing them both out of the room such that she could get herself changed into a more presentable attire. There was no way that she would simply head outside dressed up in Zero's old t-shirt, it would simply looked too 'sloppy' and untidy.

Might as well get herself ready for the night, since there would be no way she could have gotten back to sleep now that those two boys were up and about; with every intention of driving her crazy for the rest of the night. Akane thought.

Three minutes later, Akane was dressed up nicely in her newly accquired set of day-class uniform. Finally, something that would keep her warm at night. The uniform which she had been wearing from her own time-period, had not been doing a good job around here. Since that had been meant for summer's use and not for the chilly seasons of Autumn and Winter.

Looking herself in the full-length mirror which she had not noticed it being around, Akane nodded in satisfaction having decided that she looked presentable enough to head outside, Akane turned and made her way for the door.

Realizing that the two boys had not been waiting for her outside as she had told them to do so, Akane merely sighed aloud as she closed her eyes for a moment; allowing her senses to run wild and free around the dormitory. After some time, she opened up her eyes and allowed her senses to lead her towards the direction of the front lounge where the majority of the night class members had gathered around, waiting for the class change-over timing to arrive.

"Akira, Subaru - what did I say about having chocolates before meal-times? " Akane started, before the two boys could reach for the offered piece of chocolate candy that was being handed out to them by the two newly return members of the night class - Shiki Senri and Touya Rima.

The two models had been away for a photo-shoot earlier that morning, and had only just arrived back in time for classes - thus missing out on all the happenings that took place since late last night, till early this morning. However, they had been filled in on the details by their friendly Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory - Ichijo Takuma, upon their return to the academy.

"See! I told you, Akane's going to lecture you on the 'having chocolate before meal' issue again. " Subaru shot his younger twin sibling a look of triumph, only to be met by his sibling throwing him a mock glare.

"Please, change your lines - will you? You said that everytime, we ended up being caught red-handed by Akane or 'Dad'... " Akira threw back a sharp retort of his own.

"... " Akane counted mentally to 'three' before speaking up, again. "Both of you, stop it! Aren't you guys whining about wanting food - earlier on? Wasn't that the reason why I had been literally forced out of bed ? Now that I'm ready, can we please just go and get those food items now? "

Knowing the traditions of the day-class students, the hour immediately after the night-class change-over timing would be considered the peak hours for the school cafeteria. That, was something which Akane had hoped that she would be able to avoid while being here in this time-line for when she had been back in her own time, she had been unfortunate enough to be appointed as one of the school guardian thus making it impossible for her to avoid the crowd.

Not that she had anything against the idea of visiting a crowded place, it was more of her intention or desire to avoid the crowd of fan-girls whom will be no doubt commenting and spreading all sorts of rumours with regards to the members of the night class during those peak hours of the cafeteria's operating timing, which makes her want to avoid joining the crowd - altogether.

"...What's up with her? Get up on the wrong side of the bed? " Aidou Hanabusa commented, somewhat unhappy with the way Akane was displaying her displeasure, openly in public.

"No, Uncle Aidou ... Akane's just mad at us for waking her up when she's still feeling tired. " This coming from the younger twin, Kuran Akira.

"Yes, that and the fact that Akane had a nasty temper when she's been rudely awaken. What did she used to call it ... Low blood pressure? " Kiryuu Subaru added on, frowning as he tried to recall the exact terms which Akane had often mentioned back in their own time.

"... " Akane could felt her veins popping up somewhere on her forehead, and her head was starting to ache from her obvious lack of sleep while she waited for the twins' to be ready for departure. Finally, deciding that she had had enough of the chatters and the idea of waiting around, Akane felt herself snapping at the twins with irritation.

"On the count of five, I'm leaving. If the two of you were still not ready to go by then, please settled the issue of the hunger - on your own! You can either try drowning yourselves with a gallons of blood tablets, or if you dared - go and pester our 'Daddy' into cooking dinner or whatever meals for the two of you!

Otherwise, you two can simply go and have a try of the Chairman's cooking. From what I've gathered - it should be worse than what that 'Father Dearest' of ours can do, in the kitchen. Should he felt the sudden need or urge to cook us dinner or something else! "

"...But Akane, we are hungry ... not feeling blood-thirsty! Drowning ourselves with blood tablets would not change anything ... " Akira protested, trying to keep himself from sounding whiny.

Behind Akane, a certain pureblood whom had just arrived paused in his steps slightly before continuing on his journey towards the front door with ease.

Akane knew Kaname Kuran had heard her words, and she would have winced if her mind had been thinking clear. Unfortunately, that was the very last thing on her mind - right now. Besides, it was not as if she was trying to curse the said pureblood behind his back or anything, so she has nothing to fear by commenting on the pureblood's lack of culinary skills.

Truth be told, Kaname Kuran's first reaction to Akane's comments of his lack of culinary skills had been nothing but bewilderment. Having been born and raised a pureblood, he had had his every needs being attend to with a wave of his hand. Thus, there was no need for him to learn any of those housekeeping skills. Therefore, his initial thought had been 'Why was he even attempting to cook in the first place'?

However, that was only a passing thought and therefore he wisely chose not to say anything as he passes by the agitated girl and headed for the front door, with the whole group of night-class members following his lead.

"Damn!" Akane cursed aloud, knowing that there was no way in hell that she was going to be heading for the cafeteria now that the members of the night class had set off for their classes.

For a while, she threw a glare towards the twins' direction before she was suddenly hit by the brilliant idea to head off to the town for some shopping. Thus, a ghost of a smile started to tug at the corner of her lips as she turned towards her adopted siblings now.

"You know, I have another idea of where we could get our food from ... Why don't I take the two of you out with me into the town for dinner and perhaps get some shopping work done? However, before that - let's pay a visit to the Chairman, shall we? " Akane suggested, smiling sweetly now.

Both Akira and Subaru shared a look among themselves, before sweatdropping in unison. Inwardly, pitying the Chairman for they both knew, whenever Akane smiled that sweetly - that would meant that someone's wallet would be flatten by the end of the day, when Akane was done with her shopping spee.

---

"Wait a minute, Shiki! Let us out there, we are going to pay the Chairman - a visit! " Akane hurried after the group of night-class members, with the two boys in tow while she said cheerfully.

Upon her words, the group of night-class members stopped in their steps. The group of fan-girls crowding outside the Moon Dormitory paused in the midst of their screaming, wondering whom might the newcomers be as they had never seen any of them before.

The two guardians reacted differently too, upon the sound of Akane's voice. Yuuki Cross had turned towards the owner of the voice in surprise and curiosity, but Kiryuu Zero had tensed slightly before forcing himself to shift his glance towards the newcomers.

"Akane-chan? " Yuuki started, wondering why the former was heading towards them.

"Hey, Yuuki-chan! Nice to see you looking so energetic, despite the obvious lack of sleep. " Akane commented, with a smile before shifting her glance towards the silver-haired guardian.

"Kiryuu-kun! Can I take up a little while of your time? " Akane started, her tone a little far too cheerful for the ex-human's liking.

"What the hell do you want now? " Kiryuu Zero responded, feeling somewhat uneasy. Thus, causing his words to come out sounding more like 'resignation' rather than its' usual annoyance.

"Accompanied us to the town for a quick shopping trip, but before that - we need to pay the Chairman a visit to gain permission for leaving the academy's ground. "

"No way!" The silver-haired guardian had initially thought to respond, but changes his mind at the very last possible minute.

The very idea of having either one of the boys attaching themselves to him, while calling him 'Daddy' in front of the fangirls from the day-class was anything but appealing. It was one thing with the night class members, and completely another when it comes down to the day-class students. At least with the night class, he knew none of them would dared to go around speaking about the issue of the twins' existence to any random students - for they would risk facing the wrath of their pureblood leader then.

However, with the day-class students - it would be another thing entirely. After all, the day class had no one with that much authority to make everyone listened and played by the rules. Else, both Yuuki and his job as the school guardians' would be far more easier to handle than it was now.

"Fine! Come along then! " Zero muttered aloud unwillingly, and with a scowl in place on his features. The silver-haired guardian started leading the way towards the Chairman's office.

"... What's wrong with Kiryuu - today? " One of the random day-class student commented, somewhat stunned by the lack of the hostile treatment from the silver-haired guardian towards another girl.

"Yeah ... I thought, he treated every girls with hostily. With the sheer exception of that Cross girl ... " Another female student, commented aloud.

"Who knows, maybe he woke up on the wrong side of bed - this morning? " Another girl responded, trying to make a joke out of the situation.

"..." Yuuki stared speechless at the crowd of fangirls, initially she had thought it would be harder for her to hold back the crowd with the silver-haired guardian being absent from the duty. Yet, it was the complete opposite. The girls had been so surprised of Zero's strange behavior that neither one of them had noticed the fact that the night class members had passes them, for they were too busy discussing the possible reasons behind Zero's unusual behavior.

By the time, the fangirls came back to the reality. It had been too late, for the night-class members were already in the school buildings having their first evening lessons for the day. Thus, the day class students had no choice but to leave for the cafeteria as they continue to gossip among themselves of the day's happenings.

---

Kiryuu Zero wondered just how exactly did he ended up being the 'baggage-man' for the trio walking ahead of him, seeming to be completely at ease despite the town being so much different from their own time. On one hand, he held the bag of basic necessity items such as the tooth-brushs and basic grooming set; several pyjamas and night-wear gowns sets for the two boys and Akane; towels and some winter wears. His other hand held another bag that was filled up with more feminine items, much to his chagrin and Akane's amusement.

"Alright, dinner up next - where to? No restaurants though ... since Kiryuu-kun would be the one paying for us, so it can't be anywhere where its' too luxuarious. " Akane asked, directing her words to the two boys' instead of Zero whom would be the one paying for their dinner.

"Hey! Why should I be the one to pay for the dinner?! " Zero protested, for he was already annoyed by the idea of being the 'baggage-man' for the trio and now they had been expecting for him to pay for their meals, too?!

"... Well, I would have paid for it using the Chairman's supplied budget if possible. However, we had already used up the fundings from the Chairman on those necessities items. Moreover, we are kind of penniless since we had not been thinking about the money issue when we decided to take a trip through the time ... Besides, its' not as if we'll be using your money all the time. So would you just cooperate with us, and paid for our dinner - this one time? I swear, I'll pay you back another day ... " Akane said, turning pleading eyes upon the silver-haired hunter.

This was a tactic of hers' that never failed to work back in her time, whenever she uses it on the silver-haired man. Therefore, Akane was willing to bet against the fact that if the tactic works fine in the future, then it should be no difference if she were to use it in the past, too.

"Fine! " Kiryuu Zero threw the girl a look of annoyance, before gritting out his reluctant agreement through his teeth.

"Thanks!" Akane beamed, smiling up at the silver-haired hunter happily before turning back to the twins and pressed for their decision.

The boys' seemed to consider the options available for a minute, before responding. "Burger King then ..."

Unknowingly, Zero let out a breath which he had been holding prior to the boys' making up their minds. For a while, he had wondered if the boys were going to pick somewhere which he would not be able to afford with his miserable week's of pocket money.

"Let's go then ... " This time around, Zero was the one leading the trio - hoping to make his way over to the said fast food restaurant without much delay. All he wanted to do now, was to get the hell back to the academy soon, and fast. He had had no intention to spend anymore of his time in town, other then the necessary.

Upon their arrival at the fast food restaurant, Akane told the boys to go and wash their hands. Turning back to Zero, Akane said.

"Please placed the orders for everyone of us, its' only fair since you are the one paying for us. Fret not, neither the boys nor I am picky about the food menu. Just ordered for us, what you would have ordered for yourself. "

With that said, Akane headed towards the less crowded area of the restaurant and went in search for a table space which would accomodate the four of them and their earlier purchases.

Fifteen minutes later, Zero arrived at the table by the furthest left corner of the restaurant and set down the tray of food without a word being uttered to anyone of them.

Honest to speak, Zero was feeling down-right uncomfortable about his current prediacment. If anyone had tried telling him months ago that he would be seen having dinner in a fast food restaurant with three vampires seated closely by his side ... he would simply thought that person crazy and would have send them off to the nearest medical centre for a check-up in the brain.

Yet, here he was - surrounded by the vampires trio whom seemed somehow related to him, in one way or another. The two boys' were supposedly his 'sons' from the future, with a certain pureblood going by the name 'Kuran'. Much to his horror and chagrin. However since Zero had yet to accustom himself with the future prospect of being involved with the pureblood in any sense other than trying to kill each other, all he could do now was to force himself not to dwell on the twins' parentage issue and simply looked at them in a more objective manner.

Generally speaking, he still had no idea how he felt towards the twins. He supposed there was no feeling of 'hate' or 'loathing' being involved, despite what he should be feeling towards the vampires or rather, the pureblood vampires in general. Even while the twins' presence had somehow 'annoyed' him now - but he figured that it probably had something more to do with the fact that whom the other parent was, rather than the twins' being pureblood.

Well, Zero knew he should be hating all vampires alike and especially pureblood, in his case. Still, he found himself caring for the twins, albeit unwillingly.

'Damn!' Zero thought, for he had no doubts that his dead parents was probably rolling in their graves now - if they knew what was happening to him now. Well, maybe his mother's reaction may not be that 'bad' - but his father's reaction would not be anything welcoming.

For the first time in his life perhaps, Zero was actually thankful that his parents' were no longer around. Who knew how would they had reacted if they were to know what was implied behind the possibilities of the twins' existence.

Casting aside the issue of the twins for now, his feelings towards his future adopted daughter - Akane, was even more confusing. Judging from what he had been feeling from the girl's aura, and the sheer fact that Akane's birth mother was a member of the 'Fujiwara' clan. Zero knew, Akane must be somehow related to him through his mother's side of the family tree.

This, apparently was something which he had not bothered revealing to any accquitances of his, be it Yuuki, or Chairman Cross. Heck, he highly doubted that his master - Yagari Toga, whom had been invited by his father to teach him the proper skills when it comes down to hunting the vampires, knew about his mother's family name too.

His father probably would not think it wise to reveal to his master, as the former had always make it known of his mild dislike towards the members of the 'Fujiwara' clan, in general. When being pressed on for an explanation, Yagari had said something about the aura emitting from that particular clan reminded him too much of its' similaries to some vampires which he had somehow encountered over the years of his hunting.

His mother had been a member of the 'Fujiwara' clan, prior to her marrying into the Kiryuu clan. Although, after the marriage his mother had still went back to her family home for regular visits, but his father had always been absent from those meetings. Usually, Zero and his twin had been asked to stay home while their mother visit the home of the 'Fujiwara'. However, when it comes down to the point that their father would be away on missions then they would be allowed to tag along with their mother, and the visit came attached with certain rules and regulations which Ichiru and himself had to obey.

Among them, included the fact to stay away from the home library of the 'Fujiwara'. However, the rules were meant to be broken at some point of time, isn't that so? Thus, Ichiru and himself would always disregard that sheer fact and often ended up using the said library as their playground for games, which ultimately resulted in his discovery of that taboo books of spells which contained the 'Time-Vortex' ritual spell, that Akane had evoked in order to bring the twins and herself, back here in time.

So what does that makes him ? Just what kind of relationship does Akane shared with him - aside from the obvious 'adopted' parent-child relationship, that is.

---

"... " Akane had been observing the younger version of her adopted parent from the corner of her eyes, for quite some time now. She knew the former was probably thinking about something, it could be seen from the obvious way that the silver-haired hunter was furrowing his brows in deep thoughts.

With an audible sigh, Akane set down the burger which she had been chewing upon from earlier and turned her eyes towards the former.

"Alright, go ahead and fired your questions away. Though, there's no guarantee that everything will be answered and explained in details. However, I simply had had enough of you shooting glances towards my direction whenever you thought that I wasn't looking in your direction. " Akane explained when she noticed the look of incredulity upon the said hunter's face.

"Right, so who's your father? "

"... Not anyone from the current night-class, if that's what you're trying to ask. "

"... Your mother? "

"Haven't been born yet ... and wouldn't be until a long time away from now. "

"Are you related to my mother directly or ... ?"

"... Yes, but the blood relations had been rather distant by the time my mother was born. I don't know if it helps, but your mother was my great-grand aunt, if you really felt the need to know ..." Akane answered with a shrug.

Zero stared at Akane in shock, now he knew why he had felt something strange when he had first landed his eyes upon the said girl. Akane was practically a bloody mirror-image of his own mother, with the exception of the hair colour which Zero suspected that she had inherited from her father side of the family.

"... Are there anymore questions? If not, can we please make our way back to the academy now?" Akane asked, feeling rather unnerved by the silver-haired hunter's unwavering stare.

Shifting her eyes away from Zero, she focused her attention towards the twins - this time around. "Akira, stop playing around with your food. Either you eat them, or you don't. "

"Subaru, don't wipe your mouth with the back of your hand. That's unhygienic ... Go to the washroom to get yourself clean up. " Akane instructed, as she started to clear up the mess which the twins had made during the midst of their eating.

Realizing that he was probably the only one whom had yet to finish his meal, Zero hurried through the last few bites of his burger efficiently before making a move towards the washroom, himself.

---

By the time the four of them arrived back at the academy, the night had completely fallen. Although, the majority of the night-class members were still in their classes; there would always be a few strays whom had somehow wandered out from the class, by themselves. Tonight, it was of no difference.

The group of four had been walking through the woods, when they scented Yuuki's blood in the air. Hurrying through the woods, they were hardly surprised to find two day-class females fainting upon the sight of Aidou's lengthen fangs as he stepped forth to lick the blood of Yuuki's off the said female guardian's injuried hand.

Almost immediately, Zero went for his 'Bloody Rose' and directed the said gun towards the blue-eyed blond vampire. The twins whom had been by the side of the silver-haired guardian shakes their head in mild disapproval, before commenting.

"Uh oh ... Uncle Aidou's in trouble again ... "

"So what?! What's he going to do to me - then?! Shoot me?!" Aidou Hanabusa exclaimed, trying to challenge and dared the fellow guardian into shooting him.

"... I would not suggest you to provoke him further, Aidou ... " Akane said, glancing at Zero warily now.

The sudden sound of gunshot froze the blue-eyed blond vampire to the spot, behind the former - Akatsuki Kain was equally shocked by the silver-haired guardian's actions.

"What the ... ! How dare you, Kiryuu?!" Akatsuki Kain stepped forth, protesting on behalf of his still shell-shocked cousin with unhidden fury rolling off his body aura.

The former would have threw a punch towards the silver-haired guardian, if the twins had not stepped forth and placed themselves in his way.

"Get away, I'm not going to let him off the hook - this time around." Akatsuki Kain had all but snarled in anger. Despite the anger rolling off him in waves, he could not simply push the twins away from his path for that would have meant that he was challenging the authority of a pureblood. Children or not, matters not. The fact remains that they were purebloods, from the lineage of the infamous 'Kuran Clan' too.

"No, you are the one whom should be stepping away from him! We did warned Uncle Aidou of the dangers of challenging 'Daddy' and gloating in his presence ... but did he listen? No, he did not ... " Kuran Akira was speaking firmly and maturely now, no longer displaying that whiny attitude from before.

"Yes, he had no one else but himself to blame that things had came escalating down to this point. Besides, 'Daddy' didn't actually blast a 'hole' through him - merely fired a shot of warning. Nobody was hurt, and no one was killed. Therefore, why don't we just leave things be? " Kiryuu Subaru added, trying to calm and drill the 'logic' back into the mind of the fuming Akatsuki Kain.

Just then, another voice of authoritive came ringing out from the deeper parts of the woods. It was none other than the pureblood, Kaname Kuran - himself.

"What is the matter here? " Kaname Kuran had asked, but neither of the people had bothered to respond to his query.

A quick glance about the surrounding area was enough to notify him of what had most probably taken place earlier, with a wave of his hand he beckoned for the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory to check on the two day-class students' conditions. He nodded with relief once he was told that the students had not been hurt, merely fainted from the shock of the situation.

Turning towards Yuuki, Kaname shot the girl a look of apology before glancing over to the other fuming guardian whom still had the 'Bloody Rose' out and pointed towards them.

"Kiryuu, do you mind putting that 'Bloody Rose' away for the time-being. That gun of yours was no doubt considered a danger to us - the vampires, in general. I'll assured you that Aidou would be receiving his fair share of punishments from me - later on in time. Could you please escort the two girls to the Chairman's place, Ichijo will be in charge of removing tonight's events from their memories.

Do let the Chairman knows that I'll be heading over personally at a later point of time, to apologize personally for tonight's event and Aidou's behavior. " Kaname Kuran said, his tone cool but laced with an undertone of warning and authoritive that was not to be argue with.

Zero stared at the pureblood for a minute, before he allowed himself to drop the 'Bloody Rose' and stuff it back to the gun holster hidden behind his day class uniform coat.

"Yuuki, let's go. " Zero said to the fellow female guardian, while he headed over to the spot where the two day-class girls had fainted. Picking one of them up with a scowl marring his features, while allowing Ichijo Takuma to do the same for the other girl - the duo their way towards the Chairman's office, with Yuuki Cross following after them.

---

Sometime later back within the walls of the Moon Dormitory, Kaname Kuran slapped Aidou twice, hard on the cheeks. Berating the blond for being careless and allowing his bloodlust to gain control against his better judgement. After which, he moved on to berate Akatsuki Kain for not attempting to put a stop to his cousin's ridiculous acts, instead had attempted to challenge the school's guardian to a fight when it had been obviously Aidou's fault, since the very beginning.

Throughout the whole session, Akane and the twins had been standing by and watching the sight taking place in front of their eyes, at one side of the room. Their facial expression neutral and masked up with indifference, unlike the other members of the night class whom had been looking on with slight apprehension.

"Aidou, if I ever caught you attempting to taste the blood of Yuuki Cross again ... You'll find yourself in very deep trouble ... " Kaname Kuran warned, his voice though sounded controlled was laced with an unmistakenable hint of displeasure.

Aidou nodded hesitantly to the pureblood's words, trying his hardest to ignore the pain emitting from the swelling of his cheeks as he left for the privacy of his assigned dorm room which he had been sharing with his cousin.

Following the departure of Aidou Hanabusa, neither of the night-class members had dared to linger on in the lounge for feared of crossing path with the infuriated pureblood. Eventually, the lounge was emptied out leaving behind the pureblood himself and the three time-travellers; whom seemed to be rather accustomed to the pureblood's temper for neither one of them seemed to be feeling the pressure of being in the same room as an irated pureblood.

Kaname had to admit, he was rather surprised when he sensed that he was not as alone as he had thought it out to be. Today had been the first time ever, did he allowed himself to display such anger in public. Thus, he had been expecting to find everyone fleeing from his presence as soon as he had had them dismissed from his sight. Yet, somehow it seemed that there had been some exception to the case, after all.

Akane and the twins had remained behind, neither of them appeared to be affected by his dark mood from before. If anything, they appeared to be totally at ease. Akane was even snooping around the piles of books that had been laid forgotten and spread out on the coffee table, probably left behind by some other members of the night-class while in a rush to get themselves away from the lounge when Kaname dismissed them from his presence.

The twins, on the other hand, had somehow managed to get their hands on the remote control to the flat screen television situated within the lounge and were currently flipping through the channels at random while ignoring his presence, altogether.

"..." Kaname said nothing, not trusting himself to speak - yet. Still, he could not help but wondered about the reason behind the trio's calming reactions when the rest of the night class students had felt apprehensive over his unusual display of fury.

As though sensing his thoughts, the elder twin had turned towards his direction and asked. "Yes? Is there anything that you wish to talk to us about - Father? "

Kaname felt his eyebrow twitching faintly, trying his hardest to ignore a particular strange feeling which seemed to be tugging at the bottom of his heart, each time he heard the term 'Father' emitting from the lips of the boys. Clearing his throat awkwardly, Kaname started.

"... Aren't you boys supposed to be feeling scared or something? "

This time around, it was the twins' turn to be feeling bewildered. The two boys shared a look among themselves, before turning back to Kaname and said.

"What exactly are we supposed to be feeling scared about? " The twins asked back, in unison.

Silence stung the air, before Akane sighed aloud and decided to cue the twins in on just what exactly the elder pureblood had been fretting about.

"I think, what Kaname-sama had meant to ask was why the three of us weren't affected by his dark mood or his earlier display of rarely shown anger ... "

A light of recognition finally dawns on the twins, upon the sound of Akane's voice from behind. Before, Subaru took up the responsibility of explaining things to the younger version of their father.

"... Is that all? If so, I'm just going to be completely honest with you. What you've displayed in front of every members of the night-class just now, was nothing really scary. Rather, we have grown so accustomed to the idea of witnessing it on regular occasions that it no longer frighten us anymore."

"On regular occasions? " Kaname frowned slightly, as he pressed on for an elaboration from the elder twin.

"... Well, regular occasions such as Uncle Aidou pissed you off by doing something that you had forbidden him to do ... or another verbal fight with 'Daddy' that turned violent and physical for a while, before it evolved into something else that is unsuitable for kids like us to witness ... " Subaru was about to start quoting more examples, when Kaname put a stop to the silver-haired child's words.

"Enough, that's enough for now ... I don't need all the details ... yet. "

"Okay then ... " The boy fell silent, immediately and moved his eyes back to the television screen.

"Akane, aren't you going to retire for the night? You would be joining the day-class for lessons, starting tomorrow morning... right? " Deciding to change the subject of conversation, Kaname shifted his attention towards the elder girl and asked.

If Akane had been surprised by the sudden change in conversational topic, she did not show it. Instead Akane merely nodded in response and said, "Yes, I am ... but I can't simply just head off for bed when the two of them are awake. Who knows what they could be capable of doing without anyone watching over them. "

"Perhaps ... I can help to watch over them for you ? In that case - you would be able to head off for that long overdue rest which you seemed to be whining so much about, earlier this evening? Wouldn't you? " Kaname started, wincing inwardly when he realized that he had actually sounded a little too eager for his own liking.

Somehow the sheer idea of how Kiryuu had already spend some quality time with their supposed 'sons' makes him felt like doing the same thing, too. Honestly, Kaname had no idea why he was feeling the way that he does, right now. The feeling which he felt towards the twins' sheer existence was somewhat indescribable, it seems to be a mixture between disbelief and strangely enough - the feeling of joy.

However, when it comes down to the issue of the twins' other potential parent - Kiryuu Zero, an ex-human vampire; a vampire hunter and someone whom his beloved Yuuki had cared a great deal about. Kaname had to admit, he was floored by the feeling of lost. Never had he felt so bewildered in the whole of his life, before.

Prior to the twins and Akane's arrival, he could very well classified his feelings towards the fellow silver-haired hunter under the category of 'loath'. Now, he simply had no idea anymore - and these days whenever he looked at the said guardian, aside from the usual feeling of irritation; there was something else too.

Something which he still had yet to come up with a probable explanation for - that would be his sudden urge to 'concern' himself with the former's special health related 'conditions'. In other words, how the silver-haired hunter was coping with the body stress of the turning process - from a human to a vampire, on the whole.

"Well ... if you're sure about it ... " Akane's inquiring tone of voice jarred Kaname from his thoughts, causing the pureblood to return to the realm of the reality.

"Yes, I'm certain that I could handle them - just fine. I did have my share of baby-sitting experience with Yuuki when she was younger ... " Kaname assured the worried-looking girl, as he stood by his decision to watch over the twins while Akane could head upstairs for some rest before heading off to school, early next morning.

"Alright then ... " Akane eventually agreed, she was tired and since the pureblood had offered to baby-sit them for her. She might as well seize the opportunity to catch some sleep before departing for school in another seven hours time. Besides, with her out of the picture - does it not allow an opportunity for the twins to 'bond' with their 'Father'?

Moreover, Akane knew - the twins would never openly defied their 'Father' words of authority. That would have happened with Zero occasionally, but the situation had never occured - not even once, in Kaname's presence. Well, that was kind of within Akane's range of understanding too, since Zero can be too 'accomodating' to the twins' requests for his own good - sometimes.

Then again, that was to be expected from the fellow ex-human though. After all, Zero had been the one whom carried the twins to term; and later on went through the hell of hard labouring pain just to bring the twins into the realm of existence.

Not that, Akane would bothered to reveal such information to either parents of the twins; at this point of time though. For she knew, the fellow ex-human would not be able to digest such 'disturbing' information for the time-being. Therefore, she would be keeping this little piece of information to herself, for a while longer. Until the situation deemed it necessary for her to reveal the said piece of information to the public, or the timing suitable enough for her to cue the future parents in on the fact.

Although, it had been Zero whom was playing the role of the 'mommy' to the twins; but the former had not always been on the 'bottom' in the relationship with the pureblood. If anything, the concept of 'dominant' and 'submissive' was never important in their household, since the two vampires take turns in 'doing' one another. While Kaname and Zero had never broadcasted such information of their privacy to the girl, Akane had managed to figure out things on her own - by observing the way the two vampires had interact with one another in their everyday lives.

"Akane? " The pureblood's questioning tone of voice jarred Akane out from her trip down the memory lane, blinking twice to remove herself from her dazed-like trance.

Akane responded, "Nothing ... my mind kind of 'zoned' out on me for a while. So I guess, I'll leave them to your care then ... Good night, boys! Do try to have fun 'bonding' with Kaname-sama ..."

Akane added the last bit of her statement cheekily, and she would have mentioned the term 'Father' but decided against it at the very last minute. Unlike the situation with the twins, she highly doubted that Kaname Kuran would allowed her to get away that easily, upon using that particular word of 'Father' in his presence.

~to be continued~

Date started: 29/04/09

Date completed: 01/05/09

Date edited: 01/05/09 


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Alright, so the identity of the 'mommy' was revealed in the last chapter XD I hope, that's satisfying enough ... and in this chapter, some slight 'Father-son' bonding moments between Kaname and the twins, before we switched towards the day's events as Akane made her debut appearance in the day-class as 'Kiryuu Akane'.

---

Chapter 5 - The mysterious transfer student of the day-class!

Takuma Ichijo had to admit the sight that met his eyes following his return to the Moon Dormitory after his visit to the Chairman's office, had caught him by surprise.

The pureblood leader of the Moon Dormitory - Kaname Kuran was seen entertaining the twins with the story 'The Little Red Riding Hood' with each of the twin settled quite comfortably on the former's lap. For a while, Takuma had thought that he was hallucating. However, when he heard his friend's voice calling out for his attention - Takuma realized that the images had not been fading away as how the hallucations should be.

The boys were still seated comfortably on the pureblood's lap with ease. Astounded, the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory headed for his friend and said. "The memories had been removed from the two day-class girls'"

There was no need for the Vice-President of the night class to elaborate on his statement, for they both knew what had happened that had resulted in the necessity of modifying the girls' memories.

"Good, and please keep an eye on Aidou and Kain - over the next few days. The last thing which I need from them now, was to have them attempting to kill Kiryuu ... on the grounds of the academy. "

Kaname finished eventually. For a while he had been contemplating on saying that he still have his reasons for keeping the fellow hunter alive - but that was something which he could not mention with the twins' being present. Neither would the reason of not wanting to upset Yuuki if Kiryuu was to be hurt in any sense, would sound 'right' with them being around.

The twins were his sons with the fellow ex-human, after all. Although, that had yet to occur and would only happened sometime at a later stage of his life. Still, the fact remains that they were here now and despite his conflicted feelings towards the twins' other parent for the time-being, he had to admit that he cared for the twins'. In fact, the twins' current standing position within his heart was just lagging slightly behind Yuuki.

"Sure, I understand ... " Takuma responded, drawing him away from his thoughts and back into the realm of reality.

Having still being distracted, Kaname failed to realize that his friend was actually glancing around the surrounding as though in search for something, or someone. It was not until he heard the younger twin addressing his friend, did he realized the fact that the Vice-President was still standing in front of him.

"... If you're wondering where's Akane, I can assured you that she's just upstairs sleeping away without having us around to distract her from her precious hours of sleep. " Kuran Akira said, before the former could even start asking about Akane's whereabouts.

"Oh ... and I supposed Kaname had somehow volunteered himself for the task of 'baby-sitting'? " Takuma Ichijo started, sounding somewhat amused by the idea now as he started to shoot glances at his pureblood friend.

"Takuma ..." Kaname started, warningly.

"Oops, I guess I had better leave while I had the chance to do so ... " With that said, the Vice-President threw another look of amusement towards the pureblood's direction before vanishing down the hall-way in a bat of an eyelid's time.

"... " Kaname stared towards the hallway where he had seen his friend heading for, somehow he had a feeling that by the end of the week - everyone whom resided within the walls of the Moon Dormitory would be notified of his volunteering to 'baby-sit' his future 'sons'.

Turning back to the boys, Kaname asked. "Would anyone of you mind, if I were to move our location to somewhere else where privacy would be insured ?"

The two boys shrugged easily, not really caring where their 'Father' had in mind for them to go. After all, knowing Kaname - the three of them would bound to end up within the privacy of the pureblood's room.

For they both know, neither of the members of the night class would dared to intrude or invaded the privacy of their leader's room without permission being granted. As it would otherwise be seen as an act of disrespect towards the pureblood, and that was something which was highly frowned upon by the people in their society.

Evidently, the boys had their thoughts proven right - when they found themselves stopping in front of a door that looked familiar enough for them to recognize it from their childhood memories.

The door was pushed open to reveal a suite of rooms which the twins had no problems identifying. It was the same set of rooms which their family would always be seen occupying, whenever their parents decided to take them along with them when they decided to pay a visit to the Academy. Either for business reasons that required some dealings with the Chairman, or merely for a socializing visit - a chance for them to interact with the members of the night-class from their own time.

Otherwise, it would be simply for the sake of spending some quality time with their adopted sister - Akane, whom had been living within the academy grounds and often being away from home. Except during the festive seasons whereby the school would be closed and the students would be expecting to return to their respective home for the holidays.

The twins stood still while they waited for the further instructions to be issued from their 'Father', even if they knew practically each and every inch of the pureblood's room by heart. They still dared not moved without permission being granted by the former, after all - the Kaname Kuran standing in front of them now was from the past, not the future.

Therefore, they were both caught by surprise when they felt themselves being lifted up by the strong arms of the pureblood before they found themselves being placed atop of the duvet bedsheets of the former's large canopy bed.

"Father? "

Kaname looked over at the boys just in time to meet up with their inquiring gaze, and smiled tentatively. "Try to make yourselves comfortable here, since I'd promised Akane that I'll watch over the two of you so she could slept on in peace. I'll not be having the two of you back in that same room with her again, at least - that would be the case for tonight. "

"...Oh good, does that mean we get to listen to our favourite bed-time story again? " Kuran Akira, the younger twin started sounding excited at the prospect of spending the night in the pureblood's presence.

Beside Akira, Subaru was once again at a loss of words. Sometimes, he really had to resign himself to his younger twin brother's ability to be feeling at ease, despite how precarious their current situation had been. Yet, Akira still had the audacity to ask for a bed-time story from the younger version of their 'Father'?!

Well ... at least, Akira had not attempted to get either of their parents' from this time-period to sing them a lullaby. Subaru told himself, assuringly.

Kaname Kuran frowned visibly for a second, before opening his mouth to inquire. "And what would that favourite bed-time story of yours be? "

"A Mid-Summer Night's Dream! " Subaru spoke up before Akira had a chance to do so, causing the younger boy to pout unhappily for a minute before giving up on the notion entirely. Upon the realization that Subaru was simply not going to let him do as he pleased, this time around.

"Fine then! Since Subaru had already stated his 'pick' for tonight, I'll get to choose the story - the next time around. " Akira said, having 'emphasising' on the last part of his statement.

"Sure, but please bear it in mind not to pick anything that had yet to be written by this point of time - alright? Knowing you, your favourite story would only be written and published in another century's time. Therefore, its' hardly possible for 'Father' to be able to tell that particular story to us - yet. " Subaru reminded, while he agreed to his younger twin sibling's request.

With the boys decision made, Kaname had to head off in search for that particular book of shakespeares' from his personal collection of books that was within the privacy of his 'study'.

---

Forty-five minutes later, Kaname put away the book of tales written by Shakespeares' as he turned his eyes towards the two sleeping boys whom were now occupying his bed. Smiling as he took in the way the two boys had cuddled up against one another seeking for warmth, Kaname reached for the blanket and pulled it up to cover the two slumbering figures before making a move to leave the room for the dining hall, himself.

It was now two o'clock in the middle of the night for the humans out there, and thus making it mid-day for the vampires of the night-class. Like the humans, vampires like himself does required taking meals that consists of solid food at a certain point of time within a day. They, do not merely survived on the 'blood-sucking' itself - contrary to what the humans had thought the 'vampires' to be. Hence, his reasons for heading towards the dining hall of the Moon Dormitory now as this was one of the timing where actual food would be served by the chefs working within the kitchen of the said dormitory building.

The other timing where food would be provided within the Moon Dormitory, would be six in the morning. For that timing would be when the majority of the night-class members usually returned from their after-class activities, and would be wanting some dinner before heading off for bed.

"Kaname-sama!" The night-class students whom were already settled at their respective table within the dining hall greeted, as he entered the dining area.

Nodding towards the majority of them, Kaname made his way towards the direction of the table which he usually sat together with his friends.

"Takuma ... " He greeted, while his eyes scanned the rest of the occupants at his table. Unsurprised to find both Aidou and Akatsuki absent, he figured that the two probably were still 'sore' from the fact that he had lashed out against them in public. However, he was not at all worried by the fact. Knowing for a fact that once the day's over, they would have just let the whole issue 'go' and left it buried somewhere else in their mind.

"Ah ... Kaname, where's the boys? " Takuma had asked, as soon as he reaches the table.

Kaname Kuran eyed his childhood friend with intent, while assessing the remaining members' expressions carefully. Seeing that neither of them seemed to be wary of being around him now that hours had fleeted by since his display of anger towards Aidou, Kaname nodded with satisfaction before responding to the fellow Vice-President's query.

"They're sleeping ... if you really must know ..."

"Oh ... " Takuma sounded vaguely disappointed for a moment, before brightening up again. "Well, I guess it can't really be help. They are kids, after all ... taking naps in between hours could be considered normal ... I guess. "

"... Why? Is there a particular reason why you have been asking about them? " Kaname said, as he narrowed his eyes at his friend's words.

Upon the pureblood's query, the Vice-President gulped somewhat nervously as he shook his head in response. "Nothing, I just felt like sharing with them some of my favourite mangas collection ... "

"I see ... " Kaname made a knowing sound in response, although he does not quite believe the words of his fellow friend. Still, he did not make any attempt at pressing the former for an answer. Wiping the side of his mouth with a paper napkin as he finishes off the last portion of his food on the plate, the pureblood started for the direction of the kitchen.

The pureblood had wanted to speak to the head chef in charge with regards to the modification to be made on the menu of food to be served, later at six in the morning. Instead of the original dinner menu that was to be served, Kaname had requested for a breakfast menu to be prepared for Akane as well. Although, the girl had mention nothing about wanting him to make special arrangement with the kitchen on her behalf. Somehow, Kaname still felt compelled to do something for the girl. Why though, he had no idea about it, himself.

Meanwhile, the Vice- President of the Moon Dormitory heaved a sigh of relief when he noticed that Kaname had not pressed him for the true reason behind his inquiry of the boys' location. He knew the pureblood was anything but convinced of his previous reasoning, for it was obvious from the way Kaname had been eyeing him following the end of his last statement.

Then again, certainly he could not be telling the former that he was trying to convince the rest of the members within their group that Kaname had volunteered himself for the task of baby-sitting. Could he? Kaname would have killed him, if he answered the pureblood's question truthfully.

---

Akane had to admit she was indeed surprise when she entered the dining hall at six in the morning, to find herself being served breakfast menu instead of the supper menu which she had been expecting. A quick glance towards the plate of food being served to another member of the night-class, confirmed her suspicion.

Someone must have spoken to the chef in charge of the menu, how else could she explain the obvious different choice of food being catered that particular morning. The chef must have been told to serve the only female student whom was dressed in the day-class uniform, the specially requested breakfast menu beforehand. Otherwise, she would not be seeing the plate loaded with french toast together bacon and eggs being placed in front of her now.

"Thanks, but may I know whom had helped to change the menu for me? " Akane murmured her word of appreciation to the kitchen helper whom had been asked to serve the nobles during meal-times, while making her enquiry.

The kitchen helper stared at her for a minute, before responding. "It was Kaname-sama, whom made the changes on your behalf. "

"... I see, thanks. " Akane responded, as she dismissed the former from her sight. "Figures that it would be him, since there was apparently no one else with that much authority down here ... Well, granted Takuma would have the same authority to make such requests - should he choose to do so ... but the sheer idea of the Vice-President doing anything like that for my sake would be just 'weird'. "

Akane mused to herself, as she settled down to have her breakfast in peace. Initially, she had thought that she would have to make do with the supper menu. However judging from the menu being served today, Akane was glad that she need not feared about over-eating for breakfast, anymore.

With a smile, she greeted every vampires in the hall a quick 'good-night' and 'good-bye'. Akane was out of the dining hall and headed towards the direction of the school building, in a flash of light. Akane stepped out of the gate of the Moon Dormitory, just as the last of the night-class member entered under the close observation of the two guardians.

"Good morning, Yuuki-chan! " Akane greeted happily, as she headed towards the two tired-looking guardians with a hearty skip in her steps.

"Ah! Good morning, Akane-chan ... How are you feeling? It must be hard for you to wake up so early in the morning ... Why didn't you ask to be in the night-class ? Surely, you would have qualified ... " Yuuki started, only to have the silver-haired guardian cutting her off, mid-speech.

"Yuuki ... Akane had been in the day-class since the beginning ... Remember what she had been wearing when they had first arrived, the night before yesterday? " Zero prompted, reminding Yuuki again of that 'fateful' night as he had now taken to label it.

"Yes, Yuuki-chan ... I'll be fine. If I can handle it back in my own time, I certainly can do so while being here, as well. " Akane hurried to assure, before reminding Yuuki to hurry if they do not want to be late for class.

Thus, when Kaname took a peek through the drawn curtains of his room - he could easily make out the shape of the three figures whom were hurrying across the lawn and heading for the school building. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he witnessed how the two girls interacted with one another, his smile faded however as his eyes landed upon the figure of one Kiryuu Zero.

Time is running out for the hunter, the turning process had already begun. He could easily hear the clock ticking away softly now, and he knew it would only be a matter of days, hours even. Depending on just how much longer Kiryuu could continue to fight against the strong lure of the bloodlust by sheer will-power before succumbing to the inevitable.

---

"Class, please settle down ... Today, our class is honour to have with us a new transfer student whom had just came back from aboard. " The homeroom lecturer for the day-class, Year 2 Class B announced.

Once the class of students settled down in their respective seats and was starting to pay attention to the lecturer's words, the homeroom lecturer beckoned for the awaiting transfer student to enter the classroom.

Akane entered the class confidently, her body language showing nothing else but sheer elegance. Turning around such that she was now facing the class of students, Akane was hardly amused to see the look of surprise on the female populations. She figured that quite a number of the female students in her class must have realized she was the very same female whom had came out from the Moon Dormitory, catching everyone's attention during the class change-over timing, yesterday.

Akane surveyed the classroom to find Yuuki waving at her, while Zero appeared to be glancing out of the window in sheer boredom. Akane smirked inwardly, somehow Zero would find himself no longer being bored - soon enough. As soon as she was done with her self-introduction, the fellow silver-haired hunter would be wishing that he was anywhere else but within the classroom. That much, Akane was certain.

"Good morning everyone, I'm Kiryuu Akane. I'll be learning together with the lot of you, starting from today. I hope that we would all get along well, with one another. " With that said, Akane directed a dazzling smile towards the students within the class, in general.

"I'm sure, we would have gotten along well with no problems ... Kiryuu-san ..." The class representative started easily enough before pausing in the mid of his speech and turned startling wide eyes towards Akane, as he repeated with incredulity. "Wait a minute! Did you just say ... the name 'Kiryuu'?! "

Akane nodded, smirking inwardly at the class representative's reactions. Now this was what she had been expecting from her fellow classmates, and then she shifted her eyes towards the two guardians' direction. Yuuki Cross appeared to be shell-shock, stunned by her words of self-introduction.

The silver-haired hunter though, was another matter entirely. The former had an unreadable expression on his face, before pushing back the chair and departed from the class without a word being mentioned to anyone. Not even the lecturer whom appeared to be standing at the front of the classroom frowning at the whole class with an unhappy look on the former's face.

Ten minutes later, an irated silver-haired guardian had all but stormed into the office of the Chairman as he demanded. "What is the meaning of that?! "

The Chairman of the Cross Academy, Kaien Cross blinked in puzzlement as he queried. "What is the meaning of /what/? "

Zero glared, and if looks could kill - the Chairman would have been dead by then. "A-ka-ne!" Kiryuu Zero gritted out through his teeth, seething at the way the Chairman was still acting like an idiot in front of him.

"Oh ... so this is about our charming Akane-chan ... so what is it about her? "

Forcing himself to calm down, lest he destroyed the office of the Chairman with his anger that was threatening to spill forth. Zero glared as he asked. "Why is she using the name of Kiryuu?! "

"... Probably, because that's her name? "

"No, what I meant was - why is she using my family name while being here?! Surely, you would have known by now that it would no doubt caused an uproar! "

"... I know, and I'm certain that she knew - too. Still, she insisted upon using the name 'Kiryuu'. She will not be able to use her birth father's family name for it could risk gaining unwanted attention to herself, from the council of the Vampires' especially. The name of 'Kuran' is out for obvious reason, being the family name of a pureblood and all. Not to mention, the female students of the day-class would have a fit if she were to use that name. I'm sure, you would have known by now the name 'Fujiwara' would not work as well and she refuses to use 'Cross' as her family name while being here. So, there ... you have it. Which other name could she have use - if not the name 'Kiryuu'? "

"The hunters' association ... " Zero started, only to have the Chairman cutting him off in mid-speech.

"Zero, they won't say anything. The Kiryuu Clan had been literally wiped out by Shizuka Hiou back then, and you are the only one to come out alive but not totally unharmed either. If the hunters' association tried to poke their nose into the issue, we could easily just tell them that Akane was turned by Shizuka Hiou, just like you are. Zero - they are hunters, not vampires. They can't tell whether she's of noble-blood or an ex-human just by looking at her profile on papers. "

"... " Zero remained silent, appeared to be thinking things over from another angle. "It could work, I guess ... " The fellow silver-haired guardian said, eventually.

"She could easily passes off as one of my sister, hidden from the public eyes' ... since she looked similar enough to my mother in terms of looks. Save for the hair colour, but we could always claimed that she had dyed her hair to keep herself being recognized by the hunters' after being turned ... "

"Exactly! Now you see why I allow her to keep using the name 'Kiryuu' and not change it into something else? " The Chairman responded, sounding relieved that Zero had finally caved in to his reasonings.

"... Still, that does not mean I am happy about it! " Zero growled, before stalking out of the office without another word to the Chairman.

"Welcome back, Mr. Kiryuu ... Would you mind taking your seat, such that the lesson could progressed on? " The lecturer called out to the silver-haired guardian's attention, upon sighting the former's return to the class.

Akane looked up from the textbook which she had taken the liberty to "borrow" from the silver-haired hunter, and asked. "Don't mind sharing, do you? "

"... What's the point of asking, when you had already taken it ? " Zero questioned back in return, but said nothing else as he dropped into his seat stifling a yawn as he did so.

"..." Akane merely sighed inwardly, as she shifted her attention back to the on-going lecture. Deciding that Zero probably would not even require the text, since the former had already fallen asleep as soon as he settled down in his seat.

---

Following the last sound of the school bell sounding aloud, it marked the end of the official class time for the day-class students. Yet, there was still another two hours to go before the change-over timing for the day and night class arrived. As usual, Yuuki Cross had been requested to stay back after class by the lecturer for remedial lessons. Unlike Kiryuu Zero, Yuuki was utterly hopeless in the fields of mathematics and thus often ended up being scolded by the lecturer for sleeping in class, which inevidently resulted in the forced remedial lessons after class had ended for the day.

Yuuki watched with a frown as Zero passes her by without a word, and Akane whom had caught on to Yuuki's worried expression spoke up.

"Don't worry, Yuuki. I'll go after Zero, and keep an eye on him while you continue with the remedial lessons. The lecturer would have thrown a fit if you missed another session again. "

"Alright then, please keep an eye on him for me ... " Yuuki hesitated for a while, before adding on. "Oh and please try not to let him cause trouble for the night-class members ... "

"... Sure, I will ... " Akane responded, though inwardly she was wondering about the part of Zero causing trouble for the members of the night class. Surely, Zero would not have reacted without Aidou baiting him into action, right?

Packing up her belonging swiftly but in an orderly manners, Akane hurried after Zero as soon as she was ready to leave the classroom. Halfway down the hallway she found herself coming face-to-face with the pureblood leader of the Moon Dormitory, as her sensitive hearing picked up on the words being spoken to the silver-haired guardian through the lips of Kaname Kuran.

"Kiryuu ... aren't you supposed to be with Yuuki? "

"... She's having remedial lessons now. "

"I see ... and how are you? "

"I'm as well as I can be, Kuran ... Senpai. " Zero added eventually, having realized that many of the day-class female students had been eyeing him with intent as they listened on to his so-called conversation with the pureblood.

"I meant, the status of your health ..." Kaname Kuran added, when he realized that the fellow silver-haired guardian had not understand the real meaning behind his words or simply had chosen not to understand them.

Zero tensed visibly, before throwing a glare towards the former's direction as he gritted out the response. "Again, as I've mentioned to you before - I AM FINE!"

The pureblood eyed him with intent for a minute, before answering with a shrug. "In that case, please do take care of yourself. " With that said, Kaname Kuran departed from the hallway and headed towards the direction of the administration building of the academy.

"... Kaname-sama. " Akane greeted politely, as the pureblood passes her by with Ruka Souen following his lead.

"Akane " Kaname acknowledge the girl with a nod of his head, before continuing on his way down the corridor of the school building.

Akane waited for a good five minutes before she made a move to follow after the irated silver-haired hunter, she knew by now that if she were to follow too closely. Zero would have lashed out against her, for there was no other available outlet for the former to vent his frustration on. Akane had seen the way Zero had tensed visibly after being inquired on his health condition by the pureblood, thus she knew the bloodlust must have been getting stronger these days for the fellow hunter to ignore.

"In that case, I must indeed hurry ... " Akane told herself, resolutely.

Her keen senses brought her towards the currently deserted science buildings, where the laboratories that the night-class members often used for their experiments in creating more blood tablets for their own use within the academy were being situated.

"Zero?! Where are you? " Akane called out, figuring that Zero had most probably decided to hide himself within this part of the school building lest he risked biting any of the random day-class students outside.

"A-ka-ne? Please ... Get Away ..." The silver-haired hunter struggled to get his words out, as he tried to fight against the bloodlust that was threatening to overwhelm his senses.

Akane turned towards the source of the voice, and was hardly surprised to be met up by the sight of Zero clenching his fists in agony as his fangs started to lengthen itself while the former's irises started to turn red from the strong temptation of the lust for blood.

"... No, I'm not leaving. There's simply no way that I'll leave you alone down here for another innocent student to find. " Akane found herself responding, visibly noting the way Zero had frozen upon her words before starting to struggle with the bloodlust again.

"Zero, it's fine. Stop struggling, it will only ended up with your bloodlust getting worse. " Akane said, as she started to remove her tie and unbutton the top two buttons of her uniform baring her neck open for attack as she walked towards the still struggling ex-human with determined steps.

"No ... Akane ... don't ..." Zero protested weakly, as he felt the lure for blood getting stronger with each steps that Akane had taken and moved towards his direction.

"It's okay, Zero ... You can take my blood, you know? I'm a vampire, myself. So you do not have to worry about hurting me ... " Akane started, trying to coax and persuade Zero into the idea of taking her blood instead of torturing himself further.

Akane could felt Zero's body trembling as she reach over and pull the distraught hunter in for a hug. Then she scratched herself hard on the exposed skin of her neck, making sure to draw blood as she did so. After which, Akane stood still while she waited patiently for the former to react to the mild scent of her blood in the air.

Akane winced visibly as she felt Zero's fangs sinking into the exposed flesh of her neck, the bite had been harsh and angry. Akane supposed that is understandable, since Zero had been brought up hating all vampires and being trained to hunt them. Yet, he had now became the very same creature which he had been trained to kill since the day that he was born.

---

Akane had no idea how long had they been remaining in that position, with her standing still and not moving while Zero drank his fill from her. It was not until they heard the sound of a sharp gasp emitting from someone behind them, did the two of them finally separate themselves from one another. Akane stifled another wince of pain, as Zero removed his fangs a little too hastily from the bite wound of her neck.

Shifting her attention towards the direction of the staircase, Akane was both annoyed and relieved that it had been Yuuki and a certain pureblood vampire whom had found them, instead of some random day-class students.

"Akane-chan ... what's going on here? Why is Zero drinking your blood?!" Yuuki directed the question towards Akane, for Zero had refused to look her in the eyes since the former had heard her gasp of surprise from before.

Akane had to resist the urge to roll her eyes upon Yuuki's question, still she responded to the question calmly. "Yuuki-chan, Zero's drinking my blood because he's a vampire ... and there's also the reason that he could no longer keep his bloodlust under control. "

"... But I thought, the Chairman had already given him a supply of blood tablets? " Yuuki asked, looking utterly bewildered and confused by the sight that she had just witnessed taking place.

"Yuuki ... the blood tablets does help to stem the crave for blood in vampires, and generally it does its' job. However, you have to understand that the blood tablets does not works on every vampires. They are kind of like a drug for medication purposes, some vampires would not be able to stomach them. Under those circumstances, should they forced themselves to ingest the blood tablets - they would have ended up suffering from a very severe allergic reactions." Akane explained, patiently.

"You mean ... Zero is allergic to them? " Yuuki whispered faintly, her eyes wide with shock.

Meanwhile, Zero frowned at Akane's words but had wisely remained silent and not making any comments about it. Although, the Chairman did gave him a box of those blood tablets urging him to take them once his lust for blood become too strong for him to suppress. However, due to his own stubbornness he had refused to take them and merely put them away in some corner of his drawer and later on, forgotten all about its' existence. If Yuuki had not brought up the issue today, he would not have remembered it - at all.

"Yes, Zero is allergic to the blood tablets. " Akane responded, her tone firm and without hesitance as she looked into the eyes of the pureblood, daring the former to contradict her words.

Kaname Kuran remained silent, he was certain that Akane must have been telling the truth. After all, Akane was from the future so her words were definitely reliable and could be trusted. Thus, his reasons for remaining solemn while Akane explained the possible allergic reactions that might occur, if one's body was unable to digest the blood tablets taken.

For Zero, his reason for remaining silent while allowing Akane to continue on with her speech of explanation was exactly the same as the pureblood. While he had not tried out those blood tablets which had been kindly supplied to him by the Chairman in prior, he supposed he must have been really allergic to them since Akane seemed rather adamant about what she had been telling them.

Then again, he could not helped but wonder if Akane had been telling them all these information merely as an attempt to prevent Yuuki from making a big fuss over the issue of him drinking Akane's blood. Perhaps, he should really gave those tablets a 'try' and see if he was indeed allergic to them?

Silence reigned, as Akane ended her lengthy elaboration on the possible allergic reactions that might occur if one ingested the blood tablets without knowing that they were allergic to them. Yuuki stared at Zero with disbelief, while Zero continue to avoid looking into Yuuki's eyes worried that the girl will caught on to his guilt.

Kaname Kuran, on the other hand, continue to eye Akane with an unreadable gaze. Granted, Kaname should be relieved that it was not his beloved Yuuki's blood which Kiryuu Zero had ended up drinking from. Yet, somehow the sight of Zero drinking the blood off Akane's neck still disturbed him. There was no anger though, only mild irritation and that puzzled him.

"... " Akane felt her gaze flickering between Yuuki and the two vampires, before rolling her eyes upon their actions. Deciding that, if the three of them wanted to hold a staring contest and see whom will be the winner - they can jolly well go ahead, and excluded her from it.

Breaking her eye-contact with the pureblood, Akane made her way towards the corner where she had dropped off her bag of belonging and her school tie. The bite wound which she had received from Zero's fangs had closed itself off by now, though there was still a faint visible mark where Zero had bitten her earlier. It would fade off eventually, latest by tomorrow morning - Akane gathered.

Pulling out a bottle of mineral water from her bag, Akane dug her other hand into her skirt's pocket and took out a small box of blood tablets from within. Fully aware that her actions had now attracted the attention of the trio whom had previously been locked in a staring contest with one another.

Akane ignored them easily, as she unscrewed the cap to the bottle of water before dumping and dissolving several of those blood tablets into the water. Keeping the remaining tablets away and put them back in the pocket where she had took them out from, Akane waited patiently as the tablets dissolved themselves fully in the water before gulping them down hastily with a grimace.

"Yikes! Taste as bad as always ... " Akane commented, before throwing the emptied bottle into the nearest rubbish bin. Following which, Akane promptly took out a mint-flavoured candy from another pocket of hers' and pop them into her mouth without hesitation so that she could get rid of the nasty after-taste of the blood tablets.

Akane only turned towards the dumbfounded trio standing behind her, when she was done with the final adjustment made on her school uniform which had been messed up earlier while allowing Zero to have easier access to her blood.

"... Akane, please do not tell me that you keep those /things/ with you, all the time ..." The silver-haired hunter, whom had been silent all this while, had finally decided to speak up.

Meanwhile Yuuki was still in shock, for she could only stared at Akane speechlessly. Words failed her completely, nothing could have describe what she was feeling at this moment of time.

Not only Akane had allowed Zero to drink her blood willingly, it seems like Akane had been preparing for the event itself. Otherwise, how could Akane have both the blood tablets and water ready at hand - making it possible for the girl to replenish the amount of blood that had been lost almost immediately, after Zero had drank from her?

"Would either of you believe me, if I claimed this to be a habit of mine? " Akane responded to Zero's comment with a question of her own.

Silence was her only response. Looking up at the trio's reactions to her question, Akane knew neither of them had believed her words. Yuuki and Zero was looking at her with disbelief, whereas Kaname Kuran was frowning.

"... But that's really a habit of mine! Besides, I need to keep these things on me all the time as I am always on the verge of suffering from a bloodlust. By that, I meant one of those mild types - nothing drastic like Zero's condition."

"Huh?! What does that means? " Yuuki Cross had finally snapped herself out from her shock, to ask. Instead, of continuing to stare and gape at Akane.

"... My patrolling partner has a knack of getting himself into 'trouble' with the night-class members by injuring himself. For some odd reasons, the scent of his blood seems to attract the attention of the night-class female vampires easily. Thus, I often ended up having to get that partner of mine away from those over-enthusiastic female vampires whom were in the midst of a blood-lust. "

"And what does that have to do with you keeping the blood tablets close to you, at all times? " This coming from Zero, whom was still having some problem understanding the link between the blood tablets and the story which Akane had just told them.

"... I see, your partner's blood seems to be rather appealing to the majority of the female population of our 'kind' ... and somehow, you are affected as well. Though, the effects that you suffered from were nothing but mild as compared to the rest of the night-class members. Still, you decided to keep the blood tablets on yourself lest you risk losing yourself to the lure of the bloodlust - am I right to say that? "

It was the pureblood, Kaname Kuran whom had caught on to the meaning behind Akane's little story from before and later linked them to the reason why Akane had kept a supply of blood tablets with her, at all time.

"Exactly! It's always better to be safe, than to be sorry. After all, one would never know what might happened in the future. Thus, its' always better to be prepared for the unexpected - isn't it? "

"Indeed. " Both Zero and Kaname agreed with a matching tone of irony in them. For they found themselves being reminded of the night when Akane and the twins' had turned up, claiming to have arrived from some point of their shared and intwined future. No matter how impossible and ridiculous that notion had appeared to be, at the current stage of their lives. Still, they could not helped but arrived to the common agreement that the twins' sheer existence itself had proven to them just how 'unexpected' the future can be.

"... Since when did the two of you started being telepathic to one another's thoughts? " Akane asked, surprise written all over her features as she turned towards the direction of her future adopted 'parents'.

The duo appeared to be startled by the fact that they had somehow echoed one another's thoughts unintentionally as well, for the two of them were also staring at one another in shock.

Well, Zero was looking at Kaname in shock whereas the pureblood's expression still remained a mask of indifference. However, if Zero had taken the time to 'look' at the former properly, he would have realized that the eyes of the pureblood had said things differently. For the clear apparent hint of shock could be seen reflected within the irises of the pureblood's eyes, which now resembled a swirling pool of chocolate puddle.

Not that Zero would have even bothered to make an attempt at deciphering the hidden feelings within the depths of the pureblood's eyes, under normal circumstances. But it was kind of hard for him to ignore the unreadable gaze which he found himself being subjected to - due to courtesy of the pureblood. Especially, when Zero found himself locking eyes with Kaname - without intention to do so, in the first place.

Deciding that the atmosphere between them was getting kind of creepy with each passing minute, Zero made up his mind to leave the place as soon as possible. Turning towards Yuuki, the silver-haired guardian said.

"Yuuki, its' time for the change-over. Let's go ... "

Yuuki Cross flickered her eyes between her friend, and the pureblood for a while before bowing to the latter with respect and took off after the silver-haired hunter whom she had taken to care for, as a brother. With the departure of the two guardians, Akane found no reasons for her to be staying around the area too.

"Well, Kaname-sama. I believed I should thank you for your efforts at getting the chef in charge of the menu to make special adjustments for my sake, this morning. Its' getting late now, and I should probably leave before the rest of the night-class arrived."

With that being said, Akane promptly turned on her heels to exit from the science building, leaving behind a certain pureblood whom appeared to be deep in thoughts.

~to be continued~

Date started: 01/05/09

Date completed: 03/05/09

Date edited: 03/05/09 


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Woah ... Chapter 6 already !!! Thanks for all your support, and special credits going out to Craze_Izumi for discussing the potential points and ideas that could be used in this fic of mine. Though, I may or may not used them in the way which she had suggested to me ... but well, at least she contributed her ideas. So, thanks!

In this chapter, Yagari would be making his entrance into my fic - finally ... Initially, I wanted him to make his entry in the last chapter ... but I guess, it just get a little too long if that happened so ...

---

Chapter 6 - In which, things just gets more complicated ...

Kaname Kuran frowned, he was currently alone in his 'study'. The twins had been taken into town by his cousin, Shiki Senri and the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory. His original intention for sending both Shiki and Takuma out into town was for the sake of eliminating a certain 'Level E' which he had received reports of it being sighted attacking random passer-bys on the streets, but he was hardly worried about having the twins going off with the duo.

For Kaname had no doubt that the 'Level E' could be easily handled by Takuma, alone. The reason why Shiki had been asked to tag along - was to provide Takuma with a back-up. Just in case the former would required any assistance in the task of hunting the said 'Level E' and it was also to serve as a precaution measure to ensure the safety of the general public. Besides, he was certain that the twins would be more than capable of handling themselves and with Shiki keeping an eye on them, they should have no problem with the prospect of facing off a 'Level E'.

Meanwhile Akane was elsewhere on the academy grounds, probably helping the Chairman out with something since Yuuki and the silver-haired hunter had been send out by the Chairman on an errand trip in town. Thus, effectively leaving him alone and undisturbed to his thoughts.

His frown deepened as the memory of Akane allowing Kiryuu Zero to feed on her blood came into mind. For some odd reasons, he was still irked whenever images of that particular memory came flashing through his mind. Now the pureblood was feeling frustrated with himself, it had already been a week since Zero had taken in his first intake of fresh blood from Akane. Yet, Kaname was still bothered by the fact that Zero had drank Akane's blood. That - confused him a great deal, for he should be thankful that the silver-haired hunter had not resorted to drink from Yuuki.

"Damn ... it sounds as though I'm jealous about what they have done ..." Kaname curse aloud, upon realization that he had actually seemed 'jealous' by the intimacy that was shared between Zero and Akane, when Akane allowed herself to be bitten by Zero for blood.

Horror flooded through the senses of the pureblood - as the thought of not wanting Zero to drink blood from someone else other than himself, came fleeting past his mind. The sense of horror was brought up to another notch, when he realized that he had began to start thinking about the silver-haired hunter as 'Zero' instead of 'Kiryuu' - which had been how he used to address the former, before things started to get this complicated between them.

A sound of 'knock' on the door of his room caused the pureblood to draw himself out and away from his thoughts. "Come in, Seiren. " Kaname said, after taking a minute to calm himself down.

"Kaname-sama ... " The female vampire named Seiren, bowed as she greeted him with respect.

"Seiren." Kaname acknowledged the former with a nod, "Is anything the matter? "

"... " Seiren nodded, but did not attempt to speak yet. She seemed to be troubled about something, but was having doubts about bothering the pureblood about it. It seems as though part of her had wanted to tell him something, and yet another part of her merely felt like turning on her heels and leave things unsaid.

"Seiren?" Kaname prompted, when he caught on to the signs of hesitance from the fellow vampire's body language.

"Kaname-sama ... words had been received that the hunters' association had decided to conduct a routine check on the academy. " Seiren responded, somewhat uneasily.

Kaname arched his eyebrow elegantly as he continued to prompt the female vampire standing in front of him, he had known the said vampire throughout the whole of his life. The Seirens' had been a loyal supporter of his family since the ancient times, he would entrust his life to the hands of the said vampire - if the need for him to do so - occur. That was the extent of his unwavering trust towards Seiren, as he knew the former would never betrayed him even if someone else were to capture and tortured her relentlessly as an attempt to get any useful information of his plans or whatever plans he might have in store for the future.

"... I understand that the hunters' association often made it a point to inspect the grounds of the academy, hoping to find faults in this whole pacifism ideals which Chairman Cross and myself have been working towards since the founding of the school ... So, may I know just what exactly is the problem - this time around? " Kaname started, pressing for the reason behind Seiren's uneasiness for the upcoming inspection of the hunters' association.

"Yagari Touga had been selected as the candidate to conduct the upcoming routine inspection check on the academy... " Seiren responded.

"I see ... and when will he arrived at the academy, then? " Kaname asked, knowing the reason behind Seiren's insecurities now.

Yagari Touga was one of the well-known hunters within the society of the vampires, for the said hunter was well-known not only for his immense dislike towards vampires in general but also for the former's infamous records and ability to hunt the vampires of both low and high ranks within the hierarchy of their 'kind', with the sheer exception of the 'Level A'.

No wonder Seiren had been feeling uneasy about the upcoming inspection check, even he felt a significant drop in his confidence level now that he knew Yagari would be the one conducting the inspection.

It was bad enough that Aidou often speak before considering his words and the consequences that might follow, combined it with the blond vampire's tendency to react badly with any crude remarks being directed his way. The above two points was more than sufficient to land Aidou in trouble with Yagari Touga, since the said hunter would rather be 'dead' than to be respectful towards a vampire.

One would thought that was the end of things, but unfortunately, it was not as there was still the issue of Kiryuu Zero to be considered. According to the information he had gotten Seiren to research for him, when the silver-haired hunter was first taken in by the Chairman after being turned by Shizuka Hiou. It had been brought up to his attention that Zero had been a student to Yagari Touga, prior to the tragical event of the Kiryuu's Clan being wiped out by the blooming mad princess.

While Kaname had no idea whether or not does Yagari still cared for the silver-haired guardian, especially now that the vampire side of Zero's had truly awaken. He was very much aware of the amount of respect which Zero still has for the former and the pureblood had no doubt that the silver-haired hunter would willingly 'died' by the hands of his master, should Yagari Touga desires it.

"Seiren ... tell the rest of the them that I want to see everyone in the front lounge, nobody should be absent from the meeting with the exception of Takuma and Shiki. " Kaname ordered, deciding to warn the members of the night-class before-hand - prior to the arrival of the hunter, Yagari Touga.

"Yes, Kaname-sama ... and what about Akane-san? Should I get her as well? " Seiren asked, seeking Kaname's opinions on the matter.

"... You can inform her ... However, she need not attend if she doesn't feels like turning up. By mentioning that I want to meet everyone ... I was actually referring to the members of the night-class, particularly. In fact Akane has no need to be present for the meeting, seeing as she wasn't part of the night-class. Besides, I'm certain that the Chairman would have already notified her about the issue of Yagari Touga's impending arrival, by now."

"Yes, Kaname-sama." Seiren responded, and was gone from the room before the pureblood could even blink.

---

"Uncle Shiki, can I have another chocolate candy? " Kuran Akira asked, looking up at the taller vampire with his best 'puppy' eyes look.

"... Sure, go ahead and take it. " Shiki Senri responded, as he moved the opened bag of chocolate treats towards the boy.

"Shiki ... please refrain from giving Akira any more chocolates. Akane would have your head on a silver platter, if she ever finds out about you giving out these chocolates candies to the twins. Despite her repeated warnings of not indulging the boys' with candies, especially chocolates to satisfy their sweet tooth - prior to our leaving the academy grounds. " The Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory - Takuma Ichijo, reminded his friend cum room-mate.

"... Did she? " Shiki Senri responded as he blinked at the green-eyed blond vampire, looking absolutely clueless about the former's words.

Takuma stared, as he nodded in response to Shiki's query before commenting. "Yes, she did. In fact, I think practically everyone whom had been in that room earlier heard her. What have you been doing then? I thought, you had been listening ... "

"... I was kind of 'zoning' out back there, still not fully awake ... " Shiki Senri responded, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"... " Takuma sighed, before dropping the subject altogether. "Shiki, I'll be going around and see if I could find that 'Level E' which we are supposed to be eliminating today. In the meantime, please do keep an eye on the twins. Do not let them wander off by themselves, else you will find yourself in very deep trouble. By that, I don't just mean - facing Akane's wrath but also the possibility of dealing with a furious Kaname as well. "

"I know ... " Shiki answered truthfully, this time. He may not have taken notice of Akane's warning in advance with regards to the indulgence of the twins' sweet tooth, but he certainly did noticed the way his pureblood cousin had been acting around the twins - recently.

Although, it had only been one and a half weeks since the arrival of Akane and the twins but it was obvious that things had been changing rapidly for everyone. He might not know whether the students of the day-class were affected by the trio's arrival, but he was certain that everybody within the night-class had been somewhat affected by the trio's sudden presence in their lives.

Over the past week, life within the walls of the Moon Dormitory was definitely fulfilling. Never was there a moment of 'dead' silence, sounds of laughter could always been heard from somewhere within the dormitory. Even during the hours of the day-time, when the residents within the dormitory should be sleeping away - one could still hear the sound of someone moving about the building. That would be Akane, and occasionally the twins as well.

Despite being born vampires, the trio seemed to be able to keep up with both the lifestyles of the humans, and the nocturnal hours of their 'kind' of people. Shiki supposed that was understandable as well, seeing as he had no problem with the occasional switch in the lifestyles too. Granted, he would have looked sleepy at all times if that were to happen but aside from that little detail, there was no other problems with him keeping the hours of a normal human being.

With the trio being around, one could find that Aidou had been losing his temper far more often than usual. Especially, when one of the twins were being sarcastic to him or simply felt the need to provoke the blue-eyed blond vampire into a verbal fight over the issue of the former's attitude towards Kiryuu Zero.

Akatsuki had taken to ignore the verbal arguments between Aidou and the twins, altogether and taking on the impassive behavior which Ruka Souen had taken to adopt while in the presence of the twins. Towards Akane, neither Akatsuki nor Ruka had ever made an attempt to speak to the former unless the situation required for them to do so. Shiki had a feeling that both Akatsuki and Ruka had been wary of what Akane could be capable of doing, once provoked. Thus, the two of them had pretty much leave the girl alone.

Aidou had learnt his lesson well enough to keep his mouth shut around the girl once the first three days of the trio's arrival was over, the said blond vampire had tried to 'bait' the girl into a verbal arguement only to find himself trapped with one of the anti-vampire's charm that Akane had set upon him, once his questions gets too annoying for the girl to endure.

That charm had been an useful one, for it does not caused pain or any torturing effects on the vampires once used. It still allowed them to function as per normal, with the only exception being the absence of the ability to speak. That charm had been a variation created out from an original subduing charm that was meant for a hunter's use while trying to get a vampire under control, its' original intent was to freeze the movements of the vampire for a pro-longed period of time leaving them vulnerable for the hunters' to slay.

However, Akane had toned down the effects of the charms by modifying them to the extent that they would only worked upon the triggering 'term' or 'word' being either uttered aloud or in thoughts. Therefore, if Akane's intent was to only freeze the vampire's ability to speak then that would be all that the charm was capable of doing once being placed upon the targetted vampire.

The charm was probably still on Aidou, merely left de-activated. Akane had de-activated the charm and leave Aidou alone after Kaname had requested for her to let Aidou off the hook, but since the pureblood did not specifically requested for the charm to be lifted off the blond vampire. Akane was more than willing to leave it intact upon the said vampire, thus allowing her the convenience to invoke them whenever she felt the need for it. After that incident, Aidou had wisely opted to remain silent especially when Akane was emitting the pure aura of displeasure by the time she got back to the Moon Dormitory.

Through the observations made, Shiki gathered that Rima and himself must have been the twins favourite. Since the boys would have greeted them with enthusiasm whenever they were seen hanging around, although he had the idea that the twins had adored them both, for the sheer fact that they would definitely indulge them with the candies and chocolates which they had very much desired but was forced to relinquish - due to Akane's insistence of not giving them any.

His room-mate, Takuma was probably the only vampire around that was adored by all the members of the trio. With the exception of his cousin, Kaname Kuran - himself. Seeing as it would be impossible for the trio to even dislike the former, since Kaname had been their 'Father' in the future.

Speaking of his cousin, Shiki sighed inwardly. It was obvious that the former had grown accustomed to the idea of having the trio around, despite the pureblood's constant insistence that he was merely doing his part as a dutiful 'host' to their three 'visitors' from the future.

He had seen how Kaname would often read to the twins, before sending them off to bed in his room. The guest-room which the pureblood had Takuma prepared for their use initially, was now practically Akane's private room. Since, the pureblood had literally moved the twins belongings to his room after the former's first attempt at 'baby-sitting' them. Then, there was also the instance of Kaname approaching the head chef and made the special adjustments on the food menu on behalf of Akane and later on, had practically demanded for the residents of the Moon Dormitory to be treating the trio with respect, if not the idea of obedience.

A sudden scent of blood hits the air, and Shiki to pause slightly in his steps. He was about to turn and get the twins away from the site, when he caught sight of the elder twin - Subaru heading towards the direction where the scent of blood had originated from.

"Subaru?! " Shiki tried to call the boy's attention back to him, but his efforts was in vain. Feeling a tug on the lower parts of his sleeves, Shiki glances down only to be meet up by the sight of Akira's calming gaze.

"Don't worry, Subaru can handle himself - just fine. Besides, that was the blood of Ms. Cross ... Therefore, I'm sure 'Daddy' is somewhere around the area too. Subaru will be fine ... " Akira told him calmly, before tugging him towards the same direction where the other twin had took off earlier on.

They arrived at the scene to find the 'Level E' being slashed into half by Takuma's sword, and the two guardians standing by the side of the alley looking absolutely stunned to see them outside of the academy grounds. Rather, Yuuki Cross was the one eyeing them with wide stunning eyes. Kiryuu, on the other hand, was frowning about the twins' presence.

"Ichijo and Shiki Senpai ... what are the two of you doing out here? " Yuuki blurted out in shock, the sight of the 'Level E' going around in town attacking people had already caught her by surprise. Now, the members of the night-class were roaming the streets without her being notified in advance was the last straw.

She was already feeling annoyed by Zero's reluctance to tell her anything about his 'condition', and Akane had refused to tell her if there was another solution that would solve the problem of Zero's inevitable fall to the status of a 'Level E' vampire - which from what she had understood from Kaname, was the ultimate fate for the ex-human vampire.

---

"Why are they here?! " The silver-haired guardian demanded, as he glances over to the two vampires for an explanation with regards to the boys' presence.

Unlike Yuuki, he was not that concern about what the members of the night-class had been doing, outside of the academy grounds. Besides, he was very much aware of the instances whereby the pureblood would send out the nobles under his charge to 'take care' of those ex-humans whom had fallen. Instead, he was more concerned about the boys' being allowed to tag along on such 'mission' trips.

Zero felt himself fearing for what might have happened to the boy, if the 'Level E' had not been pre-occupied with the task of fighting him to notice the approaching boy. Granted he knew subconsciously that Subaru would never lose against a 'Level E' that easily, still the knowledge of that sheer fact had did nothing to calm his erratic heart that was gripped by the sense of fear.

After all, Subaru's flaring aura of being a pureblood would be enough to ward the 'Level E' off. If not, the boy could have just allowed his power to lash out at the potential enemy, Zero was certain that the 'Level E' would be killed on the spot.

"We've been ordered by Kaname to eliminate that 'Level E' which had been reported about attacking random people in town. " Takuma Ichijo responded to the female guardian's question, with a half-hearted smile.

However, when it comes down to addressing the grouchy hunter - the former had actually sounded apologetic. "Kaname agreed to have them tagging along on the trip, figuring that Shiki would be able to keep an eye out on them while I attend to the situation at hand. If I had known that they would wandered off by themselves, I would never gave in to their request of wanting to join us for the trip to town. Besides, I had thought Shiki would be able to prevent them from wandering off ... but obviously, I thought wrong ..."

Shiki Senri gulped nervously, feeling both his room-mate and the guardian's glare being directed his way. Thankfully, the younger twin had managed to cause a distraction by tackling down the silver-haired guardian and his room-mate's attention had been diverted away from him as the female guardian of the Cross Academy asked them yet another question with regards to their sudden appearance in town.

"Daddy!" The familiar voice of Kuran Akira rang out, causing the silver-haired guardian to wince at the shrill loudness of the boy's tone.

"Akira ... I can hear you just fine. There's no need for you to yell ... " Zero said, as he bend down unknowingly to pick the younger twin up in his arms.

From the corner of his eyes, Zero visibly noted the crestfallen look on the elder twin's features and sighed inwardly with resignation. Subaru was probably feeling neglected that most if not all of his attention had been directed towards Akira whom was currently being held in his arms, right now.

Being a twin himself, he supposed he could relate to how Subaru was feeling at the point of time. Only it had been the opposite with him and Ichiru, since it was him whom received all the adults' attention whereas Ichiru had been the one being neglected by their parents.

"... Subaru ... I wasn't mad at you ... and I know you can take care of yourself ... but I was worried. You do know that, don't you? " Zero started, addressing the silver-haired boy gently. Trying his hardest to actually sound concern for the boy's welfare, instead of the annoyance that he felt about the boy's reckless acts.

When he sensed no reactions from the crestfallen boy, Zero promptly set Akira down on the ground and started to reach for Subaru instead.

Akira shrugged, not really caring about the sudden loss of warmth and comfort of having the support of his 'Daddy' arms around him anymore. Since, his original intention when he tackled his 'Daddy' down was to distract the former from directing any form of irritation towards his favorite uncle - Shiki Senri. Now that, his 'Daddy' was otherwise pre-occupied with the issue of his twin brother's feelings - his task of causing a distraction had been accomplished.

On the other hand, Subaru whom had not been expecting Zero to reach for him almost let out a yelp in surprise when he felt himself being lifted off the ground.

"Daddy?"

"Yes? What is it?!" Zero prompted, his tone soft and gentle as he encourage the silver-haired child to speak his mind.

"... Why are you holding me? " Subaru asked, staring up at his 'Daddy' in confusion. Unlike Akira, whom was always going around putting on the utmost innocent and adorable look that often ended up with the adults having the sudden urge to carry him around, showering the said boy with all their affections.

Subaru had been the exact opposite, ever since he had been able to walk without stumbling along the way - neither of the adults had it in mind to carry him in their arms anymore. Except on the occasional events whereby he was absolutely having trouble staying awake; or when he had been too sick to move around by himself.

Therefore, he was genuinely feeling surprise when he felt himself being lifted up in the air and being carried firmly in the arms of his younger 'Daddy'.

"Don't you want me to? " His 'Daddy' had responded, looking him in the eye causing him to freeze for a minute before shaking his head towards the former as he tightened his hold around the ex-human's neck.

Allowing himself to relax in the warm embrace of his 'Daddy', Subaru felt his eyelids' getting heavier with each passing minute. Somehow, the comforting presence of his 'Daddy' had managed to lull him to bed, without his knowledge. By the time, the group had arrived back at the academy - Subaru had been sleeping too soundly and peacefully that neither Shiki nor Takuma had it in them to wake him.

Thus, it eventually ended up with Akira heading back to the Moon Dormitory with the two vampires' escort while Subaru was left in the capable hands of Zero.

---

It was a little past seven o'clock in the evening, when Subaru finally awaken from his light slumber. Zero had been taking a short break from the tedious work of memorizing facts for the impending history quiz that would take place in another week's time, and had taken to the idea of observing the sleeping form of Subaru in detail.

The boy had the habit of sleeping in a curled up fetal position, which just seemed to point out how insecure the boy had been at most, if not all of the time. Before Zero could even have the time to analyse and fathomed out the reason behind the boy's possible feelings of insecurities, Subaru had stirred and awaken.

Zero watched as Subaru blinked twice looking slightly disoriented upon awakening, before recognition sets in causing the boy to sit up straight before glancing towards his direction.

"Daddy? Did I fall asleep just now? " Subaru asked, frowning as he did so.

"... Yes, you did. " Zero responded, matter-of-factly as he nodded his head to the boy's question.

"...Oh ...Where's Akira and the rest of them? "

"Akira's back at the Moon Dormitory, Yuuki was over at the Chairman's - probably doing the dishes since we'd just had our dinner. Akane's probably somewhere around, patrolling on Yuuki's behalf or she may have gone back to the Moon Dormitory doing who knows what ... "

"I see ... " Subaru responded, as he hide his feelings behind his mask of indifference again.

"Don't do that! " The sudden sound of admonishing words that came tumbling out from the lips of Zero, stunned both the boy and himself.

"Daddy?" The silver-haired boy looked up at him quizzically, not really understanding his words.

Zero sighed, he was just thinking about how Subaru had reminded him of the pureblood when the boy had attempted to mask his feelings behind the look of indifference. The sheer idea of voicing his thoughts aloud had not been on his mind at all, still words of admonishment came tumbling out of his lips without his knowing until it had been too late.

Taking a moment to choose his words carefully, Zero answered. "Don't hide yourself behind that mask of indifference again. I don't care if you do it back in your own time, but now that you are here ... Don't do that anymore, you are six years old. You have every right to behave like a child, instead of pretending to be an adult. "

That was eventually what Zero had ended up telling the boy, despite his initial reaction had been something along the line of the boy's expression would reminded him too much of a certain pureblood whom he had been trying to push away from his mind, over the past few days. It seems like ever since the day Yuuki and Kaname had chanced upon the sight of him sucking the blood of Akane, all the pureblood ever did during the class change-over timing was to observe him. The feeling of the pureblood's eyes constantly being upon himself, caused unwanted paranoia to rise within him.

It took all his will-power to keep himself away from directing his 'Bloody Rose' gun towards the pureblood and demanded for the former to stop looking at him in that manner, for it crept him out - too much. Besides, he had been too accustomed to the sight of Kaname Kuran looking at Yuuki while shooting glares towards his direction throughout the few minutes of the class Change-over time frame, that he found it hard to adjust to the idea of having the pureblood 'look' at him instead of glaring.

"...Basically, I reminded you too much of Father when I kept my emotions hidden ... " The silver-haired child, commented dryly.

"How did you know?!" Zero blurted out, before he could stop himself.

"Uncle Takuma used to say that too ... " There was a moment of significant pause, before the boy continued his statement. "Daddy ... you are still 'disturbed' by the idea of being together with 'Father' ... aren't you? "

"... " Zero stared, speechless by the words that came out from Subaru's lips. "You are too perceptive for your own good ... Yes, you are right. I had yet to come to terms with the /possibility/ of having a relationship with your ... /Father/, but ... that does not means that I detest the idea of having both Akira and yourself as my 'sons' towards the later point of my life. That is, if I managed to somehow wriggled past the stage of the inevitable fall to 'Level End' and with my sanity still intact. And if the only way for me to have both of you in my life, was to somehow entangle myself with /Kuran/ in one way or another ... then I might as well face up to the reality and allow the nature run its' course when the time comes for it to happen. "

"Okay ... and I'll try not to do anything that might remind you of 'Father' until you get used to the idea of this whole issue with us being the ultimate 'result' from that 'love' which the two of you will be having for one another, in time ..." Subaru said, as he allowed a wry smile to tug at the corner of his lips following the end of his response to the silver-haired hunter's words of confession.

Deciding to change the topic of discussion for the time-being, the six year old vampire child glances about his surrounding with curiosity and asked.

"So, is this how the Sun Dormitory looks like on the inside? "

"... Yes, it is ... Why do you ask? "

"Nothing, just that I never had a chance to witness it before. Even when the time comes for me to enrol myself in the Cross Academy, I'll most likely to be place in the night-class ... being a pureblood and all ... " Subaru responded with a shrug of his shoulders, in a nonchalant manner.

Zero frowned as the memory of Akane's words from that 'fateful' night came flooding back to him, as he found himself questioning the boy on the subject of the family's name.

"So why the name Kiryuu, instead of Kuran - like Akira was using? After all, the two of you are twins and not to forget the fact of being purebloods ..."

"... Akira looked like a typical Kuran, inheriting majority of the traits from the Kuran lineage. Whereas, I only got the eyes of a 'Kuran'. Every other parts of me practically screamed 'Kiryuu', and it would absolutely seemed weird to be called the name 'Kuran' when I looked nothing like 'Father'. Especially, for those whom knew both Father and you on a personal basis. Can you imagine your own reactions if you were to call Akira - 'Kiryuu' instead? " Subaru asked back in return, with anticipation.

Zero imagined the possibility of calling Akira by his family's name without taking the boy's lilac eyes into consideration, and had to suppress a grimace from forming on his features. That would be weird, he supposed. No wonder Subaru had been given his family name, despite being the first-born and most likely, the potential first-in-line heir to the future Kuran's family fortunes. Since he gathered that the few properties which he had came into inheritance following his family's demise will go to Akane, seeing that most of those assets had been in his mother's name rather than his father.

"Come on, I'll bring you back to the Moon Dormitory. It will be curfew for the day-class students soon, and I can't let you stay here any longer ... Unlike the Moon Dormitory, the keeper of the Sun Dormitory does conduct routine check on the students when curfew comes around. " Zero started, as he reached over and picked the boy up in his arms again.

---

Meanwhile, outside of the Moon Dormitory - a certain female guardian was feeling jittery upon the idea of stepping through the gates of the said building. She had been invited to the said place, by the Vice-President of the Dormitory claiming that she might be able to find the answers to what she had been seeking if she were to pay them a visit - that night.

"Well ... screw the fact of whether or not Zero would be pissed off for my coming here without his company! He was the one whom refused to tell me anything about his condition, isn't it? So he cannot fault me on the idea of approaching the Moon Dormitory without his companionship - right? Besides, he was currently pre-occupied with his future son. " Yuuki Cross reasoned with herself, as she took a deep breath before stepping through the gate of the Moon Dormitory.

A sudden rustling sounded from the woods, before two familiar figures stepped out from the dark greeting her with their presence. It was none other than Aidou Hanabusa and Akatsuki Kain, whom had both nodded curtly towards her direction before explaining that they had been requested by their Vice-President to come out front, so as to escort the said female around as a potential bodyguard from the rest of the night-class members.

"Is that really necessary? " Yuuki asked, frowning at the two night-class members' words.

"Don't you dare to assume that it would be safe for you to walk around the vicinity of the Moon Dormitory unaccompanied. I'll have you know, not all of us in this academy was really into the whole pacifism ideal. Some of us only followed the orders and rules that had been laid down by Kaname-sama, and did them only because our pureblood leader had wanted us to. If being respectful to human-beings happens to be what Kaname-sama would wanted to see from us, then we'll jolly well do it for him. " Aidou Hanabusa responded, his expression tight and masked up with indifference making it hard for Yuuki to read the fellow vampire's mood.

"Yes, moreover ... you are usually not alone. Always, Kiryuu will be hanging around you ... and that serves as a constant warning to the rest of the common class vampires around that you are off-limits. Not only due to Kaname-sama's order, but also the potential danger of needing to face up to a vampire hunter if they were to cross the line. Kiryuu may not have completed his full training as a hunter, but his family had been one of the better-known hunters' clan. Therefore, nobody would dare to do anything that might put them in a precarious situation with Kiryuu." Akatsuki Kain added, as an after-thought.

With that said, both vampires made a move to start leading the way inside heading towards the Dormitory. Usually, there would be no need for an escort, but tonight had been one of the night that a party would be held for the members of the night-class to unwind themselves from the stress accumulated over the month, dropping all their pretense for peace between the humans and the vampires, society. Real blood will be allowed for consumption, only on such nights - and of course, blood will only be shared between themselves and only within the walls of the Moon Dormitory. There will be no hunting of the humans involved, that was the ground rule laid in place by their pureblood leader.

Despite the rule being laid in place, it would still be unsafe for the female guardian to be walking about the area surrounding the Moon Dormitory alone and without escort. For, there could be a number of common class vampires waiting to pounce on some innocents whom attempted to sneak past the security wanting to catch a glimpse of the attractive night-class members.

"Ah! Yuuki-chan, finally here I see ... Welcome to my birthday party! " Ichijo Takuma greeted out, cheerfully causing every heads to start swinging towards the female guardian's direction.

"Ichijo-senpai ... today's your birthday? " Yuuki asked, sounding a little baffled by the large numbers of vampires loitering around the outside of the Dormitory building.

Yuuki had to admit, she was nervous. Never had she found herself in the midst of so many vampires before, usually it was just the few noble class vampires whom will followed the lead of Kaname Kuran, wherever the former may choose to proceed.

"Yuuki, come over here. " The sudden sound of the pureblood's voice, caught the attention of most if not all the members of the night-class vampires.

"Kaname-senpai ... " Yuuki started, sounding stunned but remained where she stood for she did not dared to venture any closer to the pureblood with everyone staring at her with disdain.

"Yuuki, please do come over and have a seat next to me ... " Kaname Kuran said, this time his tone firm and offered no room for objections from the lower-ranking vampires.

Slowly, a path was cleared out by the vampires crowding around the front that was separating the pureblood from the female guardian.

Yuuki took a tentative step forward, before continuing the rest of her journey towards where Kaname Kuran had been seated with confidence. As usual, the pureblood was seated on a sofa couch with his most trusted subordinate - Seiren standing by his side. Only this time, there was someone else being perched on the lap of the pureblood. That someone whom had been allowed to do something this bold, and yet had not been murdered brutally by the many lower-ranking vampires present at the site - was none other than the wavy-haired boy of six, going by the name of Akira Kuran.

"Good evening, Aunt ... Yuuki ... " Akira greeted her, with slight hesitancy as he looked up at the older pureblood for further instruction.

A quick nod from Kaname Kuran caused the boy to heave a sigh of relief, before settling down more comfortably with his little head resting against the chest of the older pureblood. Kaname allowed a small smile to tug at his lips as he looked down at the boy with fondness apparent in the depths of his eyes, before turning towards the awaiting girl standing in front of him.

"Yuuki, you shouldn't be here alone ... it can be dangerous ..."

"I know, but I want to know ..." Yuuki had the rest of her statement being cut off by the sudden change in atmosphere, surrounding them.

Turning around, she was met up by the sight of a peeved looking Zero glancing towards her direction with the other twin boy firmly settled in his arms.

"Yuuki ... what are you doing here?! " Zero asked, his tone not unkind but laced with an underlying tone of displeasure.

"I ... I was going to ask Kaname-senpai, something ... " Yuuki started, only to find herself being cut off by Zero again.

"Just because I refused to tell you, and Akane does not think it wise to let you in on the fact ... You had to find another way to know what the hell was going on in my life, is that it?! The reason that you venture over at this late of time, not giving any consideration to the fact that you might possibly be harmed?! " Zero stated as he eyed Yuuki disapprovingly.

"I believed that's quite enough, Kiryuu. I'm sure that Yuuki had only did it, out of her pure concern for your well-being. Granted, she had not been thinking clearly on this matter. Still, what's done cannot be undone. So why don't you just leave things be, and since both of you are already here ... perhaps the two of you could stayed around for a while longer before leaving again?" Kaname Kuran interrupted, breaking the possibility of a rising argument between Yuuki and the silver-haired hunter before it could occurred.

Zero huffed for a second, before growling out a 'Fine'. The fellow hunter settled for the idea of ignoring Yuuki for the moment, and decided to direct his full attention towards the silver-haired child instead. Using his fingers as he combed a few tangled hair strands from the boy's head, as he set Subaru down on the ground gently.

Every actions that was made by Zero failed to escape from Kaname's eyes, and the silver-haired guardian was very much aware of the fact too. After all, it was kind of hard for him to ignore the constant feeling of someone eyeing him from behind while he attempted to concentrate on his task of re-adjusting Subaru's attire.

---

In the meantime, over at the Chairman's office - a man was seated in front of the Chairman with a lighted cigar held between the lips.

"So ... how's the kid. " The man asked, trying to sound indifference upon the mentioning of the term 'kid' but was apparently failing miserably at the task.

"... I thought, you said you don't care about him anymore? " Kaien Cross eyed his fellow friend, and ex-colleague from the hunter's association as he responded to the man's words.

"I don't. I'm only checking to see if he had fallen yet ... " The man replied, gruffly.

"He's fine, haven't fallen to the end yet ... if that's what you want to know. " Kaien Cross responded, sounding weary.

"Good, then I guess I wouldn't have to kill him ... this time around." With that said, the man attempted to turn on his heels and depart from the Chairman's office.

"Yagari ... please do not treat him any differently from before. I know, he still respect you as his mentor ... " Chairman Cross finally said, before the man could stepped out of his office.

Silence met him, save for the sound of his office's door being closed. Another sigh of weariness slipped out from him, as he wondered about the chaotic situation that would soon occurred. He had no doubt, his friend would freaked out on him upon discovering the existence of the twins and Akane. Still, there would be no way to avoid the inevitable meeting and confrontation between Yagari and the trio.

"What a messed-up situation we have on hand ... " Kaien Cross commented to no one in particular, as he turned away from the window and switched off the lights - ready to retire for the day. He shall think about the consequences that may arises, later on in time. For now, he just wanted to sleep and pushed aside all the worrying thoughts that seemed to be crowding about in his mind.

~to be continued~

Date started: 03/05/09

Date completed: 05/05/09

Date edited: 05/05/09


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Okay, so Yagari finally appeared in the story ... XD At the rate I'm going, I might ended up having a few more OCs in the story ... Well, towards the later parts of the story that will be, since ... this story is going to end up AU. With the twins and Akane in the picture, history will definitely be altered ... In fact, its' changed already ... cause' zero ended up drinking Akane's blood rather than Yuuki's ... Alright, enough crap talk ... on with the story ...

In this chapter, you will probably get to see Zero being shot by Yagari and Akane did something that stunned everyone ...

---

Chapter 7 - Envoy from the Hunter's Association

Yuuki Cross sat on the couch nervously, Kaname was seated by her side with the Akira perched on his lap. Seiren was standing behind them, wary eyes scanning the surrounding and always ready to defend the pureblood should the need arises. Zero had his arms crossed as he stood with his back leaning against the pillar of the dormitory building, some distance away with Subaru. It seems like the the silver-haired guardian was determined to ignore her for the rest of the night. Ever since, Kaname had interrupted them in the midst of their argument - Zero had not spoken another word towards her direction.

"Zero ... are you still mad at me? " Yuuki started, hesitantly as she addressed her grouchy childhood friend.

"No." The response from Kiryuu Zero had came out curt and harsh, letting on the fact that he was still unhappy about something.

"..." Yuuki stared down at the ground with a crestfallen look on her features, it was obvious that Zero was still in a foul mood and it was due to her mindless actions that caused such a reaction from the said guardian.

Truth be told, Zero was anything but mad at Yuuki. Like what Kaname Kuran had told him in prior, Yuuki wanted to help him but somehow had taken the wrong approach and obviously had not been thinking clearly before putting her thoughts into actions. Still, he felt annoyed. However, the annoyance he was feeling was not meant for Yuuki; but directed towards himself.

Having been born and raised in the a hunter's family, Zero had been taught to hunt vampires since young. He had been told that the Vampires are monsters whom took on the appearance of human-beings; and would not hesitate to suck the blood of an innocent dry when they felt the desire for blood. That was why he should not trust any Vampires; should he come across one. That was what his master had told him during the midst of his hunter's training session, and the last time he placed his trust upon one of the vampire - it costs his master the price of an eye.

Ever since then, he never felt compelled to place trust in any vampires that he had found himself chancing upon. Then when the event of the mad blooming princess, Shizuka Hiou - a pureblood vampire whom came and wiped his family out, then brutally bite him and turned him into an ex-human occurred. His initial mistrust towards the vampires in general, started to turn into 'hatred' instead.

Now that the vampire in him had truly awaken, he found himself hating the creature which he had been forced to become even more, with each passing minute. He hated his frequent desires for blood of a living being, and how he wished he could have just killed himself off with his 'Bloody Rose'. Yet, he found himself having trouble doing it. For whenever he attempted to direct the gun-point of the 'Bloody Rose' to his temple, images of the twins and Akane would came flashing into his mind causing him to pause in the midst of firing at himself.

Standing some distance away from him, Takuma Ichijo and Shiki Senri was conversing among themselves. The magnificent three storey cake stood between the two vampires, as they debated of whom would be the one finishing the cake. Then the unmistakenable scent of blood was spread in the air, for Takuma Ichijo had unintentionally cut himself on the sharp edge of the knife that was meant to be use on the cake.

The sight of Shiki Senri sucking the former's blood off the bleeding finger was too much a sight for Zero to stomach, and it caused his lust for blood to hit him like a hurricane. 'Shit!' was the only thing on his mind, before he baded an abrupt farewell to the elder twin before dashing towards the gate of the Moon Dormitory; trying to distance himself from the crowd and attempted to isolate himself in some deserted corner of the school.

"Zero?!" Yuuki started, making an attempt to go after her agitated friend only to find herself being stopped by the twins and the pureblood prince - Kaname Kuran.

"Yuuki ... its' fine, let Akane handle him ... " Kaname assured, as he flickered his glance towards the direction where he had seen his future adopted daughter heading for.

"Seiren, please escort Yuuki back to the Chairman's place. Subaru, Akira - stay close to Takuma, and do not leave the dorm unnecessarily. " Kaname Kuran instructed, before he made a move to leave the area - heading for the direction where Akane had took off after the silver-haired guardian, a while ago.

"..." The twins shared a look among themselves, before shrugging the matter off - easily.

"Hey! Where's Kaname-sama going?" Aidou Hanabusa called out towards the twins' direction, as he looked up just in time to see their pureblood leader rushing past him.

"Huh? Oh ... where else but going after Akane ... whom had went after our Daddy. " Akira answered, offhandedly as he started to approach the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory and asked if he could have a slice of the former's birthday cake later.

---

Akane could tear her hair out from frustration, she had arrived at the site of the school's lake only to find herself being met by the sight of a suicidal Kiryuu Zero. The fellow ex-human had the gun-point of his 'Bloody Rose' directed at himself again.

This was the third time Akane had found the former doing that, this week. The first time had been several hours after Zero had taken her blood, and the second time had been merely three days ago when the former had had his allergy towards the blood tablets being proven right after refusing to drink from her. Although, she had somehow managed to force Zero into drinking her blood once the blood lust completely took over the former's mind and later on had to use one of her anti-vampire charm on the said man, in an attempt to stop the former from trying to kill himself off after drinking from her for the second time around.

"Stop it! Zero! Why are you even bothering to put yourself at gun-point when you know that you are not going to pull the trigger, anyway?! Trying to drown yourself in the lake would not work as well, since the lake was far too shallow for a suicide attempt and especially when you know how to swim. " Akane interjected, trying to prevent herself from rolling her eyes at her obviously distressed future parent.

Zero said nothing but continued to stare down at his feet with a forlorn expression on his face. Tried as he might, there was nothing he could have done to stop his frequent lust for blood. Granted, Akane had been a willing donor and being a vampire herself, there was no need to worry about hurting Akane in the long run. Seeing as Akane could easily replenished the amount of blood loss by merely drowning herself with blood tablets, on daily basis despite his frequent necessity to feed.

Still, he could not helped but be worried and felt guilty at the same time. Worried because, Akane was from the future and would have to leave at some point of time. What should he do then? Whom would be there for him when his blood lust struck again? Certainly, he could not be expecting to take from Yuuki although he was certain, the girl would have offered if she knew it could help him to some extent. However, that would have meant facing the fury of Kaname Kuran when it happened.

Not that he would have cared if the pureblood prince was being angry at him, or his actions. Seeing as if it had been Yuuki whose' blood he had ended up drinking following Akane's departure, he would have killed himself off before the pureblood had a chance to lash out at him.

Guilty-wise, because Akane's a family member to him. Unlike Yuuki or Chairman Cross, Akane was related to him by blood. Though, rather distant by the time Akane was born. It still did not change the fact that they were related, through his mother's side of the family. Akane would be his grand-niece, and later on to be his adopted daughter. Despite the fact that his bite would not have any lasting effect upon the said girl, seeing as Akane had been a vampire as well. Therefore, the mark from his bite would eventually fade and heal itself off - in time. Still, reluctance had been there whenever there was a need for him to feed.

Although, Akane had mentioned many times that she had been a willing donor but the guilt would still be there. Especially, since he had an enormous appetite when it comes down to the time for him to be fed. Topping it off, the time-gaps between each of his feeding session was relatively short. Currently, it was standing at the approximate rate of 'once in every three days'. It was a good thing that Akane had a habit to carry around with her a stash of blood tablets so she could easily just replenished herself each time, after he had been fed.

The sudden feeling of his gun being pried out from his hand, caused him to look up at his future 'daughter' with resignation. After all, only Akane would dared to venture this close to him and not in the least worried about the possibility of being shot by him. If anything, Akane could have held her own against him too, if they were to fight against one another.

"Hush, its' okay ... its' alright. You can take as much from me as you need, we can worry about your future 'blood source' at another point of time. For now, just take from me. Although, I would very much appreciate it if you could stop being so suicidal after drinking blood from someone, especially if that someone happened to be me. Like I mentioned before, I wasn't just any random innocent human-beings. I'm just as guilty as you, being a vampire and all.

I do have my own living blood source back in my own time, should I really require fresh blood when the blood tablets failed to sate my occasional blood lust. Although, the chances of me losing myself completely to the bloodlust was equivalent to none. " Akane said, as she attempted to calm the distress ex-human down before bracing herself for the bite that was to come but never did happened due to the intervention of Yagari Touga.

The gun-shot rang out aloud causing both Akane and Zero's attention to shift towards the intruder, before Zero could even bite down on Akane's exposed side of the neck.

"I see that you have been unable to stop that insatiable desire for blood of a living being, after all ... " The unmistakable gruff voice of the newly arrived hunter, froze the vampire in Zero as his sanity came flooding back to him - all at once.

"Master Touga ... " Zero whispered, as horror flooded through his senses for being caught red-handed by his master when he was on the verge of biting Akane for blood.

Biting down on his lips, drawing blood as he did so while another shot from his master's gun grazed him by on the left side of his shoulder blade. Hissing from the effect of the anti-vampire weapon, Zero fought back the bloodlust which was threatening to seize control of his mind again.

---

"Alright, this is it!! Stop it, would it killed you to simply stop shooting for a minute's time?! " Akane cursed aloud, as she stepped forth and pushed the stunned ex-human behind herself as she met the eyes of the infamous hunter, Yagari Touga - bravely.

"What?! Haven't you noticed that he was about to bite you and sucked you dry? Yet, you are still defending him? " Yagari Touga asked, with incredulity apparent on his features as he regarded the day-class girl whom seemed adamant on defending his former disciple, whom had recently awaken as a vampire.

"So what?! He didn't really do anything which I hadn't allow him to do ... Besides, if he's a monster ... I'm not too far off, myself. " Akane added, as she allowed her aura of being a noble-rank vampire to flare.

Yagari Touga was stunned, he had been so affirmed that the girl had been a human-being; up until a second ago. It seemed as though the girl's aura of being a vampire had just flare up by itself, from no where in particular. For he had sensed no vampires around, with the sheer exception of his former disciple when he had first arrived at the site.

"Honestly, is there a need for you to be this stunned by the fact that I could hide my vampire aura from being detected by the hunters'? " Akane questioned, arching an eyebrow up as she addressed the now stupefied hunter.

Snapping himself out from his stupor, Yagari Touga narrowed his eyes upon the vampire girl and asked. "Just how on earth did you managed to do that?! "

Akane shrugged, as she responded easily. "Nothing much ... its' just a concealment charm ... "

"... Certainly, it can't be any usual concealment charm ... From what I know, a typical concealment charm can't be used in this manner ... " Yagari Touga pressed on, unhappy about the fact that he had been 'bested' by a vampire.

"Of course, its' not the typical concealment charm ... In order for it to work, modifications have to be made upon the original version of the charm. By the way, please do not ask me how the modification to the charm had came about ... I had no idea myself. The modified charm had been around since the time I was being born ... " Akane responded, matter-of-factly hoping that this would be the last question from Yagari Touga which she would be answering.

"Does this charm of yours had anything to do with your ability to take part in the outdoor activities for the class - during day-time? " This coming from Zero, whom finally decided to speak up and reminded both Akane and his master of his presence.

Akane said nothing but nodded in response to the silver-haired hunter's words. She figured the issue must have been on Zero's mind for quite some time already, since she had noticed all the strange and quizzical glances being directed towards her from the said hunter each time - she had volunteered to take part in the outdoor physical activities such as playing 'tennis'.

"..." Zero was speechless, he must have been sleeping on his job. How could he have missed something like that?! He had been in the same class as Akane for a week's long, and he had yet to discover that Akane had kept her vampire aura hidden under a charm - all this while? To think that, he had actually wondered the reason behind Akane's ability to do physical lessons outside the classroom under the broad daylight. This must be the reason why Akane had been able to play the role of a normal human-being so easily, and without raising any suspicion from the day-class students at all.

"Anyway, shall we continue what we have been doing - before the hunter came into the picture? " Akane asked, ignoring the presence of Yagari Touga and turned towards Zero, whom appeared to be still struggling with his blood lust.

"Akane! " Zero started, aghast by Akane's behavior.

"Shut up, Zero! You are in the midst of a blood lust, and as I mentioned before ... trying to withstand the lure of the blood would not helped you at all. Instead, it will only worsen your condition and increase your desire for more blood the next time around, it struck." Akane stated, matter-of-factly.

"Surely, you are not expecting me to suck your blood down here with my master watching?! " Zero questioned, skeptically.

To which, Akane merely shrugged in response and said. "Don't care, either way ... he's your master, not mine. You have two options though, either you drink from me ... or you can make do with this ... "

With that said, Akane threw a small tube of red liquid towards the ex-human which the former had caught the tube with his fast reflexes.

"What's this? " Zero asked quizzically, as he eyed the tube of red liquid with distrust.

"Blood ... from Ichijo ..." Akane responded, and she added the last bit when she caught sight of Zero's quizzical look.

"Huh? Ichijo? Why would he give you a tube that's full with his blood? " Zero asked, hating himself for sounding stupid but still he felt it strange that the vice-president would willingly supplied Akane with his blood.

Akane look bewildered for a moment, before coming to the realization that the former had thought she was referring to Takuma when she mentioned the name 'Ichijo' earlier on.

"No, not Ichijo Takuma ... Why would he want to give me his blood anyway?" Akane questioned back in return, before kindly elaborating her previous statement.

"The blood's from Ichijo Asami, his daughter ... and that would be the willing blood donor of mine, which I've been telling you before ... She gave it to me before I leave home and arrived here. Don't you dare to throw it away, or I swear I'll keep you in a full body-bind later on with another charm of mine. Just drink before your blood lust make a turn for the worst ... Especially, with that wound that you had just endured from the anti-vampire weapon ... You'll definitely need the blood in order to heal better, and faster ..."

Throughout the whole of Akane's conversation with Zero, Yagari had been watching them interact with one another. Judging from the way the vampire girl was interacting with his former disciple, Yagari gathered that they must have been on good terms. How else, would the girl have allowed her blood to be drink by his former disciple?

After all, being a hunter - they would have to study the culture of the vampires' such that it would make it easier for them to judge when would be the best timing to hunt the vampires. One of the vampire's vulnerable moment, would be the moment after their blood had been taken by another - as their body would be weakened due to the loss of their blood.

Not that the concept of one vampire drinking off the blood of another vampire had been rare in the society, in fact, it was quite the opposite. However, it was just weird and strange that the female vampire had actually allowed his former disciple, an ex-human and a hunter to drink from her, willingly. Under usual circumstances, shouldn't the vampire involved be worried about the possibility of being slayed immediately after the blood had been drank off by the ex-human hunter?  
And with that thought in mind, Yagari Touga finally shifted his attention away from the interaction session between his former disciple and vampire as he voiced his question aloud to the latter. "Whom might you be then? "

"If you are asking about my name ... I'm sure, you would have heard it from Zero just a while ago. It's Akane, but if you are asking about which noble lineage am I from ... That, I'm sorry to say but I can't reveal them to you. " Akane replied, without intention to reveal anything else aside from her name to the said hunter.

Turning away from the hunter, Akane shifted her attention back to the silver-haired guardian; waiting for the former to make a decision on how to deal with that bloodlust which was once again threatening to overwhelm his senses. At the same time, Yagari Touga - too had his attention focused solely on his former disciple. Wondering if he should continue shooting, or should he waited around and see what would happened. Would his once favorite student drink the offered blood in front of him , or would the former withstand the lure for blood and came out triumph?

Zero stared as he flickered his eyes between his master and Akane, knowing that he was now the focus of their attention. His master was wondering if he would indeed drink the blood which was offered, while Akane was waiting around to see if he would drink it willingly, or did she have to resort to desperate measures in order to ensure that he will have the very much desired blood in his system.

"Zero ... do you want to drink it yourself, or do I have to feed you by force? " Akane started, feeling very much irritated by the hesitance which the fellow silver-haired hunter was displaying.

There was still no response from the silver-haired guardian, and thus Akane decided to make the decision for them both. Snatching the tube of liquid from the former's grasp, Akane emptied the tube of blood into her own mouth but did not attempted to swallow them. Instead, she started walking towards the unmoving silver-haired guardian with determined steps.

Making full use of her vampire's strength, Akane pushed Zero towards a tree and forced the said hunter to lean against it without much struggle. Then she waited for the former to speak, once she saw that the silver-haired hunter's lips had parted slightly as an attempt to speak. Akane seized that opportunity to force her lips upon the former, 'kissing' the blood which she had kept hidden in her mouth from before - into the slightly parted mouth of the stunned guardian.

Zero swallowed the mouthful of blood unknowingly, too stunned by Akane's actions for words. He know he should be reacting in some manner, perhaps to try pushing the girl away. However, due to his master's earlier usage of the anti-vampire weapon against him and the fact that Akane was optimizing her strength as a vampire fully. There was simply no way for his weakened self to have reacted, therefore he could only remained where he was and allowed the girl to do as she pleased with him.

With Zero being too stunned by Akane's actions, and Akane being too focused upon the idea of 'feeding' Zero. On top of it, Yagari Touga was too surprised by the female vampire's actions towards his former disciple and the latter's obvious lack of any hostility reactions towards the said vampire except being stunned. Neither of them noticed the presence of a certain pureblood whom was now openly glaring at the sight with heated eyes. The fury emitting from the pureblood had been so strong, that it caused a few branches atop of the nearest tree to break away from its' stem under the sheer pressure of the invisible energy that was crackling around in the air.

Apparently, Kaname Kuran had arrived at the scene just in time to witness that 'kiss' between Zero and Akane. If he had arrived a few minutes earlier prior to that scene, he would have understood the reason behind Akane's actions. However, unfortunately he had not heard Akane's words nor witnessed Zero's actions from before. Therefore, he was now feeling absolutely furious with what he had witnessed.

If the pureblood had been thinking clearly, he would have questioned himself on the reason behind his fury. Then again, the pureblood had been anything but logical and level-headed right now. Somehow, the sight of Zero and Akane being locked in that 'kiss' itself had send him over the edge and before he knew it, he was on his way over to separate and pull the duo apart from one another.

---

Akane blinked, one minute she had been holding her grand-uncle and one of his future adopted parent still while she fed him with the blood that she had kept in her mouth. The next minute, she was forcefully being pushed away from the silver-haired hunter by the pureblood - Kaname Kuran, when the former made a grab for the ex-human and pulled the said vampire aside in a possessive manner.

"... " Akane said nothing, there was no need for her to explain anything. Not that the pureblood would be willing to listen anyway, judging from the way Kaname was glaring at her now and combined with the aura of pure fury emitting off the pureblood's body. Akane knew, she would be 'in' for it - tonight.

Kiryuu Zero, meanwhile, was in shock. His legs felt like 'jelly' to him, it seems like he had been given so many surprises in a day that if his heart had been any weaker, he would have been suffering from a heart-attack or cardiac arrest right now. First, there was the issue with the 'Level E' and Subaru's reckless actions. Then there was the fact that Yuuki had actually went off alone to the Moon Dormitory without an escort, following which his master's impromptu arrival and caught him in the midst of a bloodlust. Later, Akane tried to force-feed him with the blood from a future 'Ichijo' through a 'kiss' - now, the pureblood vampire, Kaname Kuran had to come out here and join in the crowd too?!

"Kuran?! What are you doing? "

There had been no response, except that Zero could felt the grip of the former's hand on his wrist tighten significantly. Wincing from the pain, Zero tried again. This time around, he repeated his question loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Damn you, Kuran! What the hell are you doing?! "

With that, it finally snapped the pureblood out from his daze-liked manner. However, instead of responding to the irated silver-haired hunter's words; Kaname merely turned to stare at the former. Rather, Kaname was staring at the lips of Kiryuu Zero with intensity as though he was trying to burn a hole in the lips of the former using his eyes.

Taking in the sight of the dried blood by the corner of Zero's lips, Kaname finally realized that the kiss from earlier which was shared between Akane and Zero had never been a real 'kiss'. It was merely a feeding process, that involved Akane feeding the fellow hunter through desperate measures using force - why though, he had no idea.

Still, the understanding of that reason behind the so-called 'kiss' did nothing to improve his foul mood. He was still angry at Akane's actions and probably Zero's lack of reactions as well, although the level of his fury had been dampened significantly. Nonetheless, he was still unhappy and he decided that he would need to vent some of his frustration tonight before he exploded.

"Yes, that would be my question too. Why are you out here - Vampire!? Shouldn't you be back at the dormitory keeping an eye on your little army of leeches? " This coming from Yagari Touga whom had finally snapped himself out from his stupor mode and asked.

"...I'm here to collect a missing foal from my pack, apparently ... " Kaname Kuran responded, his eyes never leaving Akane's as he addressed the hunter - Yagari Touga.

"... Kaname-sama ..." Akane greeted, her tone oddly calm despite the fact that she should be feeling nervous.

"Akane ... " Kaname Kuran, the pureblood started smoothly, sounding far too smooth for someone whom had been glaring daggers at the said female vampire - moments ago.

For a minute Zero looked as though he was going to say something, but the pleading look in Akane's eyes stopped him before he could even attempted to speak.

Silence stung the air, and the atmosphere was tense as the hunter and the three vampires stared at one another wordlessly. Kaname was staring intently at Akane, whom stared back at the pureblood boldly without flinching. Zero was flickering his eyes between the two vampires, looking at Akane with concern and then staring at the pureblood with confusion.

Zero supposed he could see the reason behind Akane's actions, since he knew there would be no way for him to have ingest the provided blood in front of his master's eyes. Yet, his body required the offered blood badly for it would be the only way to put a stop to his bleeding wounds and thus allowing his body to heal. Therefore, explaining part of the reason why he failed to react when the girl had forced her lips upon his. Then the pureblood decided to come into the picture, and made a grab for him in a deadly possessive manner too.

That baffled him, completely. He had no idea why the pureblood was reacting in this manner, but now was not the time for him to figure out the reason behind the pureblood's fury either. For he still had his incensed master in hunting skills to think about, the hunter - Yagari Touga was now staring at the vampire trio with an expression that was a mixture between bewilderment and fury.

---

Yagari Touga was both angry and baffled at the recent events which had just transpired before his eyes. First of all, he had chanced upon his former disciple and favorite student attempting to bite someone while on his first inspection round about the academy. Thinking that he might be able to save the innocent student from harm's way, he opened fire at his disciple whose vampire's nature had been awakened.

Then as soon as he fired at Zero, he came to the realization that the student whom his former disciple had been on the verge of biting was a vampire instead of a human. Not only that, he found it strange that he actually found the female vampire familiar when it was obvious that he had never met the former before. Still, the fellow female vampire whom went by the name of 'Akane' had managed to strike a familiar chord in him reminding him of someone, whom he currently had some trouble remembering.

Moreover, there was something about the interaction between his former disciple and the said vampire that irked him. Although, it had been quite some time since he had seen his former disciple on a personal basis but basing on what he had been hearing from his friend - the Chairman of the academy, Kaien Cross. His former disciple's attitude towards the members of the night-class had been anything but kind.

However, his earlier inspection round that ended up with him chancing upon the sight of Zero almost giving in to the urge to bite another vampire had caused him to doubt the reliability behind his friend's statement.

Why would Zero be contemplating on the idea of biting another vampire for blood, when the former's initial reaction should be firing at the said creature? The lack of the hostility towards the female vampire was baffling enough, and the fact that his former disciple had allowed the said vampire to remove his weapon from him was even more bewildering for him to comprehend. Then, the female vampire had head up front and pull his disciple in for a hug. Not just any hug, it was one of those comforting hug that was usually shared between siblings or close accquitances.

Again, his former disciple and once favorite student failed to react. Basically, Zero just allowed the female vampire to do as she pleased with him. Maybe, that was why he had initially thought the girl to be a mere human-being because the sheer thought of his disciple not reacting badly to any vampires that came too close for comfort had never once occurred to him before.

Therefore when he realized his disciple was about to bite the unsuspecting girl on the neck, he did the first thing that sprang to his mind and that was to open fire at his once favorite student. However, when he ventured closer and realized that the girl whom he had tried saving from his disciple's fangs just happened to be another vampire - he was stumped.

Following which, the vampire girl had the audacity to ask Zero to 'feed' on the provided blood in front of him. When his former disciple had failed to do so, the girl had simply went up to the former and fed Zero herself with the blood through the use of her own mouth. Again, Zero surprised him with the lack of reactions when the least he thought his former disciple could have done was to somehow make an attempt to struggle against that forced feeding 'kiss'.

Yet, that did not happened and when the duo did separated themselves from one another - it was due to the presence of another vampire which just happened to be a pureblood going by the name of Kaname Kuran. The pureblood had been furious, that much was obvious since even he could sensed the pure dark aura of fury emitting from the said vampire whom came in between Zero and that vampire named Akane.

Initially, he had thought the pureblood was angry at Zero. However, that thought was soon discarded when he realized that Kuran was actually glaring at the female vampire instead of his former disciple. So, the pureblood was angry at Akane instead of Zero ... but why?

That, he failed to comprehend and to make the situation even more confusing than it already was. The pureblood was practically holding and grabbing the wrists of his former disciple in a death grip, and possessive manner. It was not until Zero had spoken up, did the pureblood finally loosen the grip on the wrist of Zero but it was obvious from the reddening of his former disciple's skin around the wrist that it was going to leave a mark.

"Ooi Kid! Looks like ... the both of us need to have a long overdued chat with one another ..." He spoke up, finally deciding that he had had enough of the strange and thick tension that hung between the three vampires.

For a while, it looked as though Zero was about to protest on the idea of leaving behind the vampires duo to themselves but a quick glare from the pureblood towards the silver-haired hunter's direction, followed by the sound of the female's next statement put a stop to the protests that was about to slip off the tongue of Kiryuu Zero - altogether.

"Go ... Zero, just go with your master. Don't worry about leaving us alone down here ... we'll be fine ..." Akane assured, keeping her eyes upon the figure of the stoic pureblood while addressing the hesitant guardian.

---

"You seemed to be awfully confident about not being harmed by me ... " Kaname commented, after the two hunters' were completely out of view and away from their hearing range.

"And you still appeared to be angry with me, though no longer that furious as before ... " Akane threw back a comment of her own, towards the irated pureblood.

Kaname ignored her statement, as he continued. "You don't seemed to be afraid of what I could be capable of doing to you? "

"... Of course, I'm confident that you would not 'touch' me. Since you used the term 'what you could be capable of doing to me' and not 'what you could do to me' ... isn't that obvious that you would not be harming me in a physical manner? " Akane responded, matter-of-factly before adding as an afterthought.

"Besides ... you are still trying to figure out the reason behind your fury - now that you have enough sense in you to keep yourself from blowing up. You are furious about me 'kissing' Zero, but why? Why are you so bothered by what I had done to Zero? Aren't you supposed to loath his very existence since he matters so much to your beloved Yuuki? Then why are you giving a damn about what I've been doing to him? " Akane asked, looking up her at future adopted 'Father' with intent as she pressed on for an explanation to the rage that nearly caused the said pureblood to explode - earlier.

When Akane received no outward response from the pureblood, she continued to speak not caring if the pureblood would be angered by her words or not.

"That's not all! I'll have you known - I wasn't kissing him earlier, because that notion would not have pleased me in the slightest and instead it would 'gross' me out, entirely! That man would eventually ended up being my adopted 'Dad' by some coincidence, and he could practically be considered as my 'Grand-Uncle' or sort - due to the relationship that we shared through his mother's side of the family. If it wasn't for the sake of getting him to drink the blood, I would not never have to force my lips upon his - at all!"

"Still, there are other ways which you could have gotten him to drink the blood. " Kaname started, only to have an exasperated Akane cutting him off.

"I know ... but please, listen to yourself for a minute and think about what you would have done if you were in my shoe just now! Yagari Touga was here, up until a moment ago ... You know as much as I do, how Zero had felt about his changing from a human to a vampire - a creature; or monster in the eyes of a hunter. The need and desire for blood to quench his hunger frustrated him to no end, for it kept on reminding him of - what a 'monster' he had became.

Do you know how hard it was for me to keep him from being suicidal after drinking from me - each time?! And you are expecting him to drink the blood that was being offered to him in front of his master's eyes?! The master whom he had grown to respect over the years of his hunter's training - and let the former see just how exactly had he ended up resembling the 'monster' which he had been literally trained to kill and hunt, since young?! You knew as much as I do that he'll never do that with his master's keen eyes upon him, watching him ... waiting for his reaction to the blood being offered. Whether or not will he continued to fight, or will he succumb to the lure of his insatiable bloodlust.

He needed blood, and you know it! Tell me ... what would you do if you had been in my shoes, today?! Even if I were to go to the extent of prying his mouth open and dropped the whole bottle of blood in, he would not have swallowed when he could have easily spit them out. His desires for blood may have been strong, but his determination to prove his master wrong was equally strong in his will - as well! There's no way I could have gotten him to swallow the blood unless I were to 'kiss' them in myself, keeping his mouth busy so that he would have no other choice available but to swallow the blood that was forced fed into his mouth."

With that said, Akane fell silent as she waited for the inevitable slap that was to come in time. She had challenge the pureblood's authority by not only talking back in open defiance, but also lashed out at the former from frustration too. There was no doubt she would be 'in' for a punishment that was to come, in time - either sooner or later. Still, regret was the very last thing on her mind.

For her previous actions, had somehow forced the pureblood to react. Granted, the pureblood had reacted subconsciously without the actual realization about just how jealous and possessive he had been in prior. However, at least it had given Akane a clear idea that the pureblood actually did cared for Zero to some extent, in order to generate such a response from the said pureblood.

Akane had no idea how long she had been standing there and waiting for the slap that never did came, allowing herself to take a peek at the stoic figure of the pureblood. She was met up by the sight of a 'defeated' pureblood, and that stunned her somewhat. Granted, she had seen her adopted 'Father' with the mask of indifference missing before - but never at such close proximity.

"You are right ... but don't you ever dared to do it again! ... " The unmistakable controlled voice of Kaname Kuran came, sounding weary but there was still an underlying tone of warning to his words.

"... Of course, I shall leave the honors of claiming Zero's lips to you ... Kaname-sama. Trust me, when I said that I'm not into incest." Akane responded, adding the last bit cheekily now that she knew her actions were not going to be penalized by the pureblood.

"A-ka-ne ... " Kaname started, warningly wondering if he had made a wrong decision in not punishing the said girl for her previous disobedience.

"Oops ... better run while I still have the chance to do so ... " Akane muttered aloud, before disappearing towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory at her fastest speed. Leaving behind the pureblood to gather himself together, before joining the rest of the night-class members back at the dormitory.

---

Meanwhile, back at the Chairman's living quarters - the master and student were staring at one another in a creepy manner. Rather, Yagari had been the one staring while Zero was the one trying to avoid looking his master in the eyes due to the sheer feeling of guilt if nothing else.

"Since when did you start fraternizing with the likes of 'them'? " Yagari Touga started, eyeing his former disciple with intent as he started loading new magazines into his gun.

"I wasn't fraternizing with them! " Zero protested, while eyeing the gun of his master's warily from the corner of his eyes.

"Oh really, then would you perhaps like to explain to me the reason why you had allowed one to hold you in a possessive manner and another to kiss you without much protest? " Yagari Touga continued to press on the subject, while playing around with his gun as he directed his gun-point towards his former disciple every once in a while.

"... " Zero fell silent, guilty as charged. Then again, what did his master expect him to do? Having just being shot by the anti-vampire weapon, his strength left him depleted like a deflated balloon. Added on to the blood loss which incurred during the injuries suffered, and with the two vampires coming on to him with their full strength. There was no way which he could have defended himself against their so-called 'assualt' - isn't that so?

Furthermore, he had been too stunned by the 'kiss' from Akane to react in time when the pureblood - Kaname Kuran had stepped in and held him in a possessive grip which he had trouble getting away after the pureblood had pulled him apart from Akane.

"Have got nothing to say, isn't it? Maybe, it's about time that I should give you another lecture as to why you should not associate yourself with creatures like them! " Yagari started, as he launched into yet another full-blown lecturing mode of a vampire hunter to one of his mindless students whom was supposedly still in training.

Behind the closed door, a certain ex-hunter going by the name of Kaien Cross was eavesdropping on the conversation which took place within his private 'study'. He had somehow managed to persuade Yuuki into heading back to her dormitory for some rest, while he would handle the situation between Zero and Yagari Touga - himself. However, no sooner had Yuuki departed from his residence heading for the direction of the school dormitory building which belonged to the day-class students; he had been chased out from the room by the hunters' duo.

Zero allowed himself to nod every now and then to his master's words, but not really listening to the lecture. Since, this was something which he had heard at least a dozen times over, back during his training days with the said hunter. Instead, he allowed his mind to roam off by itself - aimlessly but somehow his mind kept on returning to the image of a certain pureblood much to his chagrin.

Judging from the way his master was reacting to his lack of hostility towards Akane in general, he figured it might perhaps be best if he kept the information of the twins' existence away from his master - after all. He had no doubt, his master would go ballistic if he were to find out about the twins' parentage. Either one, his master would attempted to kill Kaname Kuran and should the attempt failed, he was more than willing to bet that his master would be trying to kill him off next, lest he ended up being involved with the vampires in more ways than one.

Then, there was the existence of Akane. Presently, his master had been too pre-occupied with his 'situation' with the vampires to have noticed the obvious similarities between Akane and his mother. He wondered what would have happened if his master had been let on to the fact of just how related he had been with Akane, through his mother's family relations. He supposed his master would blow up at him, making a fuss over just how convenient his dead parents' had thought it unnecessary to inform the said hunter of their family relationship with the 'Fujiwara' clan - which his master had loathed the clan's existence with a passion.

"Kid?! Ooi Kid! Are you even listening to what I've said?! " Yagari had all but growled upon realization that Zero had zoned out on him during the midst of his lecture.

Zero blinked, coming back to the reality from his thoughts. 'Shit' was the only thing on his mind, upon noticing the slight narrowing of his master's eyes on him.

"That's it! You are grounded! " His master announced, causing him to blink stupidly at the hunter.

"Grounded? " Zero repeated, sounding incredulous upon the notion of being grounded by the hunter.

"Yes, grounded ... and until you can get it through your head and remembered the various reasons about why you should not trust, or associate yourself with a vampire - which I've been telling you about, previously." Yagari commented, before leaving the room and locking him in for the rest of the day.

Staring speechlessly at the now locked door to the Chairman's study, Zero dropped himself wearily on the sofa couch available and decided to just sleep his fatigue off for the time-being. He could start thinking about how to get himself away from the sentence of being grounded after he had gotten the sleep which he required, at this point of time.

~to be continued~

Date started: 05/05/09

Date completed: 07/05/09

Date edited: 07/05/09


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: XD Looks like my last chapter came out fine, eh? Haha, I also had no idea how it ended up being that way with Zero getting grounded by Yagari XD After all, I edited that chapter being half-asleep ... :P Well, since it worked ... I'll continue this chapter from where I left off ... XD

In this chapter, you'll get to see Zero being confused by Kaname's possessive acts and Kaname gradually coming to terms with his undeniable feelings for Zero. Also, in this chapter you'll get to see some Takuma-Akane and find out more about Akane's vampires' heritage. Trust me, when I said you'll be in for a nasty shock. Last but not least, there will be the twins' interaction with Zero when they sneak in for a visit.

---

Chapter 8 - Busted!

Kiryuu Zero sighed, he was currently being isolated and locked within his room back at the Chairman's living quarters. He had been 'grounded' by his master since last night, after being dragged away from the school's lake where he had been caught red-handed by his master - Yagari Touga, for associating himself with the vampires. Initially, he was locked within the Chairman's private study but after the ex-hunter and his adopted father, Kaien Cross had protested that he needed the 'study' for researching and working purposes. His master had decided to lock him away in his own room, instead.

The former had specifically requested for him to stay in the room, and reflected upon his own actions from the night before. Until the said hunter had released him from his sentence of being 'grounded', he would not be allowed to step out of his room. Hence, explaining his reason for being absent for his classes on this particular morning.

No doubt, Akane would be laughing her head off when she hear of his so-called 'punishment' from Yuuki. Honestly, he had thought his master would attempt to shoot him into oblivion after what had happened the night before. Therefore, he was equally shocked when his master announced to him that he would be 'grounded' until further notice. Since there was practically nothing else for him to do in his room now - seeing as he had already finishes all his homework that he had on hand for the point of time. Zero decided to take the time to reflect on the events that took place over the last twenty-four hours.

So over the last twenty-four hours, he had managed to have some sort of a 'bonding' session with Subaru, the elder twin. He supposed he does enjoy having the twins around, and do 'love' them to a certain extent. Grudgingly, he found himself getting used to the idea of the pureblood - Kuran, as the twins' other parent. Hence, he had made an effort to tone down his immense dislike towards the former, and had hoped that the pureblood would do the same. Then again, he supposed that would not be too much of a problem, since the pureblood had been tolerating his presence around Yuuki - at most, if not all of the time.

However, despite his grudging acceptance of Kaname Kuran as the twins' other parent - he still refuses to consider the sheer possibility of him entangling himself in a relationship of 'love' with the pureblood. Which - he supposed was really contradicting against his heart desires of wanting the twins to be around towards the later stage of his life, since the only way he could have the twins was to get himself involved with Kaname Kuran.

Another sigh escaped from his lips, as Zero wondered aloud. "Why did things have to be so complicated? "

Then, there was the fact that Kuran had reacted agitatedly when Akane had forced a 'kiss' upon himself. Only the 'kiss' had been acting like some sort of transmission channel for the blood to make its' way down his throat, and into his body system which he knew would not be drank if Akane had not forced them down his throat using desperate measures.

The skin around the area of his wrist and his left waist were still bruised and red from the pureblood's strong grip, if he had not known of the pureblood's obvious love and affection for Yuuki. He might have thought Kuran was jealous about what Akane had done to him, or had been doing to him - at that point of time. As soon as the thought came into his mind, Zero pushed it aside while he told himself convincingly that it will never be the case.

Surely, Kuran was not feeling jealous in the slightest hint - right? Zero questioned himself, inwardly and uncertainly. If the situation had took place several months ago, and between Yuuki and himself, he might have been certain in his assumption that the pureblood was feeling jealous about his kissing Yuuki. Now though, he found himself at a loss. He had had no way of explaining the pureblood's unusual reactions to his being 'force-fed' by Akane, through the use of a 'kiss'.

"Just what the hell was going on? " Zero could not helped but groaned aloud from frustration. If it had not been jealousy that spurs the pureblood into actions - then what?! Certainly, possessiveness would not have come into play if there had been no jealousy involved - right? Jealousy would only arises if there had been some sort of strong feelings coming into play; be it desires; lusts or the feeling of 'love'.

The only feeling that had existed in them would be their mutual dislike for one another's presence, and the desire for them to tear one another apart. But that was a negative form of desire, was it not? The possibility of them lusting after one another was practically equivalent to none and he refuses to even contemplated on the idea of 'love'.

Maybe, the lust would have existed if they had been sharing their blood among one another - according to Akane's words. Since, a one-sided bond would have been formed between Akane and himself when he had bitten the former for blood but the effects of the bond would only affected the donor, not the receiver.

When he had been first let in on the fact by the girl, he had 'freaked' out. However, Akane had managed to prevent him from doing any harm to himself by assuring him that she had too much of the logical sense in her to even attempted to lust after him, whom was practically her grand-uncle and a father-figure in her life.

---

On the other side of the academy, a certain pureblood was seated up in his bed as he busied himself with the task of analyzing his unusual actions and behavior from the previous night too. Although, it was already eight in the morning and way past his usual hours of activity. Still, the idea of going to bed was the very last thing on the mind of Kaname Kuran.

The dark curtains of his room had been drawn, engulfing the room in darkness. The twins were sleeping soundly and comfortably by his side, cuddling up close to one another for warmth. Another book of Shakespeare laid forgotten by the bedside table, which he had read to the twins' as another bedtime story prior to their falling asleep. A smile graced his features as he leaned over to peck the twins lightly on their forehead, before settling himself back to his own side of the bed.

Staring up at the dark ceiling of his room, Kaname found himself thinking and reflecting on his strange behavior that took place the night before - near the school's lake. He had been furious when he first came upon the sight of Akane 'kissing' Zero, and he found himself reacting to the situation without even stopping to question himself of the reason behind his fury.

This time around, the answer to his unexpected fury came easily though. Jealousy was obviously at work, to have managed to get such an unusual reaction out of him. Still, the question 'Why' remain behind in his mind, while his heart accepted the fact that he cared for the silver-haired hunter to an extent whereby he had trouble explaining.

So when did he started to care for the silver-haired guardian? Was it after the twins' and Akane's arrival or could it be possible that his unbidden caring for the fellow hunter had started way before the trio's arrival from the future? If so, then what of Yuuki? Moreover, how could it have been possible - considering just how much Zero had loathed him over the years ... The former had attempted to stab him during their first encounter with one another at the Chairman's place.

Their first encounter had been a disaster and the first impression had been anything but good. In the end, he decided that it must have been due to the twins' and Akane's presence that brought along such changes to his feelings towards the silver-haired hunter. Then again, considering the fact for him to be able to have kids with Zero in the future - they must have been deeply in 'love' with one another, at some point of their life. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the ancient spell to work.

Now the question is 'How exactly did they ended up falling in 'love' with one another?' and 'When did it happened?' After all, the only feeling that existed between them up until recently had been their mutual dislike for one another, isn't that so? Granted, the mutual feeling of dislike had toned down somewhat with the arrival of Akane and the twins - but still, they would have continue to dislike one another, if the trio had not arrived from the future - right?

Never mind the 'What If' situation now, since it remained a fact that the trio was already here. With their coming back here to this particular point of the past, they had brought along with them the vision and possibility of an unexpected future. No point dwelling on the questions and the possibility of them falling for one another, in the near future. Since, it remained a fact now that he was 'trapped'.

Trapped because on one hand, he felt that he still love Yuuki. On the other hand though, he would now have to deal with his new and arising desire to care for Zero. In addition to his strange and newly found desire for the silver-haired guardian, he now had the twins and Akane to think about as well. Topping it off altogether, he still had to deal with the frustrating situation that involved Takuma's grand-father - Ichijo Asato and his probably not so 'dead' uncle, Rido Kuran in the near future.

His original intention for keeping Zero around was to make use of the former's sense of attraction and loyalty to take care and protected Yuuki from harm's way. He had had every intention to make use of the silver-haired guardian as a pawn in his fully laid out plan, to act as the knight that would willingly sacrificed himself for the life of his queen - Yuuki. Now though, the moves had been messed up big-time and his ploy would never worked in the way as he had initially planned it out to be.

Now though, his level of confidence wavered. For he felt himself hesitating in his moves, now that he had grudgingly admitted to his caring for the supposed 'knight' in his 'game' of manipulation. Topping it off, his number of weakness had increased gradually with the appearances of Akane and the twins. Initially, it had only been Yuuki but now ... he had to take into account of the trio's safety as well as Zero.

If it had been months ago, he would not even bat an eyelid upon the sheer notion of the fellow silver-haired ex-human giving up his life in exchange for Yuuki's safety. Now - that would have been impossible, for the sheer idea of losing the ex-human would have caused his heart to clench in agony. Either way, he was screwed.

---

Takuma Ichijo was just coming back to the academy after being out running an errand on behalf of the night-class members, when he caught sight of Akane being out in the school's tennis court having a rally game of tennis with a fellow day-class male student from the school's team.

Judging from the amount of perspiration that the girl had sticking to her tanned-like skin, Takuma figured that Akane must have been out in the sun for quite some time now. Inwardly, he found himself wondering about the reason why Akane failed to get sun-burnt or suffered from any signs of a heat-stroke after being out in the sun for such periodic hours, despite her vampire's heritage.

"Kiryuu-san, please spare me from the torture of carrying on this game with you - will you? Its' been three hours already, anymore longer, I'll be suffering from severe dehydration ... " The male student spoke up, his tone pleading as he addressed the perspiring girl standing opposite to him on the court.

Deciding to spare the innocent day-class student from Akane's further torture, Takuma took the opportunity to intervene. Besides, he have some questions which he had hoped that the girl would answered him truthfully, unlike Kaname whom had chose to brush them aside once the subject had been brought up for discussion.

"Akane! Can I have a moment with you? " He started, heading towards the direction of the girl while giving a nod to the driver beckoning for the former to return to the dormitory building with his purchases from town, for the time-being.

"Ichijo-senpai ... " The day-class student greeted him politely, before packing up and leaving him behind with Akane, alone.

"... " Akane sighed, knowing that there would be no chance of her venting any more frustrations upon the innocent day-class student now that Ichijo Takuma had arrived, turned around and packed up her own belongings as well.

Making a grab for the bottle of water, instead of drinking them like she should be doing. Akane had dumped its' content all over herself, cooling down her body temperature as she did so. After which, she reached for the towel and dabbed at her face where the layers of perspiration sticks to her skin, uncomfortably.

"Yes, Takuma? Is there anything which I could perhaps help you with? " Akane started, once certain that the former was not going to leave her alone in peace.

"Well ... perhaps, you could helped me out by telling me just what exactly was the reason behind both Kaname and your agitation upon coming back from the outside, last night? "

"... Nothing much, it's not something which you should get yourself involved in ... " Akane supplied, before changing the subject altogether. "So ... was there a particular reason for you to be out so early? The sun's had yet to set ... "

Takuma winced upon the idea of having to be out prior to the sun-set timing, but he had no choice. It was his turn to be out shopping for the monthly supplies of necessity and groceries items, and if he wanted to get everything that was being listed on the shopping list. It would have been better for him to be out in town by late afternoon, prior to the shops' closing time.

"Groceries shopping ... " was his only response, which earned him a look of sympathy from the sandy-brown haired female vampire from the future.

"Poor you ... it must have been a torture for you to be out in the sun, for such a long time. " Akane responded, eyeing the fellow green-eyed blond vampire with sympathy.

"... How about you? What spurs you to be out in the sun for such a long period of time then? "

Akane said nothing but shrugged, "Nothing ... just felt like it. Besides, please do not compare me with yourself. I had a far better tolerance of sun-light as compared to the lots of you, of the night-class. Moreover, I had an aid of an useful charm that could help to tone down my vampire's nature and thus making my level of endurance more to the standards of a typical human-being."

Silence, as Takuma surveyed her with critical eyes. Finally, the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory decided to ask the question which had been on every vampires' mind since the first time they had noticed her in the uniform of a day-class instead of the night-class, which she should be joining considering her blood-lines and heritage of being a noble-rank vampires.

"Why is it that you are in the day-class, instead of the night-class which you should be joining? Also, why is it that you always seemed to have some useful charms hidden up in your sleeves which none of us, or even the hunters' knew about? "

"To answer your first question, I'm in the day-class because I wanted to ... and also partly because of the reason that I'm supposed to be in hiding, no one's supposed to know about my being still alive - after my family's demise. As for the answer to your second query, that's because I'm from the future. Certainly, I would be able to use some of those charms that had yet to be invented by the charms expertise from this time period. "

"And which noble lineage are you from - exactly? Sometimes, you reminded me eerily of ... myself that makes me wonder whether or not are you my future daughter or something ... " Takuma Ichijo mumbled the last bit incoherently, but still audible enough for Akane to catch wind of his words.

"... I was hoping you wouldn't be noticing that little detail ... " With that Akane sighed, as she responded. "Well, you came close ... but not quite. Since, I am not your daughter ... instead you are the father to my best friend. However, I am somehow related to you - too ... "

"Damn it all ... this whole thing is just so screwed up that I, myself have trouble digesting the irony that lies behind both sides of my parents' family relations. Just answered me honestly, have you ever heard about the existence of the 'Aisaka' clan? " Akane started, sounding absolutely irritated and annoyed by something that she was about to reveal.

"... Yes, but don't tell me that's your family name?! I heard from my grand-father that the Aisakas' had died out a few years ago, when the last of that family's heir passes on to the next realm without leaving any off-springs behind to carry on the family's namesake ... Moreover, that's a pureblood clan ..."

Upon the green-eyed blond vampire's statement, Akane let out a harsh snort that sounded rude. However, Takuma did not take any offence to Akane's behavior for he could sensed that the girl was in distress and feeling upset about something.

"That's what your grand-father told you, isn't that? That hypocrite, he had the audacity to say something like that when he ... he had humiliated my grand-mother in the most revolting manners, and after that leave her alone to 'break' in complete devastation?! That action, alone was enough to drive my grand-mother into insanity and later died from depression a mere two months following the birth of my father.

Can you imagine the sheer ridicule of how my grand-mother, whom was supposed to live to a ripe-old age of a pureblood, died from something like a depression?! It was a good thing that she hadn't had the heart to kill my father, right after he had been born since he had reminded her of all the humiliations my grand-mother had been subjected towards, by that hypocrite whom you had been looking up to - as a 'grand-father'! " Akane had literally exploded, her eyes emitting fire as she glared hotly at the ground.

Akane had refused to look up at the green-eyed blond vampire, fearing that she would unintentionally allowed her fury to lash out at the former.

Takuma was stunned, he knew Akane was upset about something but he had never suspected the object behind the girl's distress had something to do with him, or rather his grand-father's actions. Then, he was hit by something more impactful for he found himself staring at Akane with an unreadable gaze.

"Akane ... when did that happened? " Takuma asked, slowly as he appeared to be piecing the puzzles together in his mind. The feeling of dread was forming in the bottom of his stomach as the harsh reality of truth hits him like a bolt of lightning.

"... I don't know, you tell me ... When was the last time you heard of the name Aisaka Midori? " Akane questioned back in return, as she finally managed to get herself to calm down and face the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory, calmly.

"... The news of her death reaches us ... exactly a year after Kaname had came over and stayed with my family ... following the death of his parents' ..." Takuma responded, with dread.

For a while, speech failed the green-eyed blond vampire as he stared at the sandy-brown haired girl in shock and horror.

"It's alright, Takuma ... you don't have to feel bad about what had already happened. After all, what's done cannot be undone. Besides, its' not your doings but your grand-father ... so please, do me a favor and don't you dare to apologize to me on that man's behalf. Speaking of which, please refrain from telling anyone about what you've learn from me today ... and also, keep my father's existence away from your grand-father's knowledge. "

"... So where's your father, now ? " Takuma asked, tentatively still unaccustomed to the idea of him having a younger uncle out there somewhere.

"... No idea, probably somewhere in the European regions ... seeing as it had been the 'Kanzaki' whom migrated and just happened to be a family friend of the 'Aisakas' that came and took him after grand-mother's passing ... " Akane shrugged, before adding.

"If you are wondering why did I first call you by 'uncle' despite the fact that we are supposed to be cousins, I'll be frank with you ... I felt uncomfortable with the idea of calling someone whom was obviously a century older than myself by their name. Though, that would be no problem to me during this period whereby I'm stuck in the past ... Just like, you've never managed to get yourself accustomed to the idea of calling my father as an uncle, instead - you called him by his name ... whenever there was a need for the two of you to interact with one another. "

"... Okay ... " Takuma responded, still sounding overwhelm by the information that had been apparently dumped towards his direction like a grenade.

---

Meanwhile, during the period of time whereby Akane and Takuma were having their 'talk' and Kaname had been busy and pre-occupied with his other commitment. The twins had awoken from their slumber and were now planning to get themselves away from the watchful eyes of the night-class members' and paid a visit to their 'Daddy'.

There had been a mild scent of blood coming from their 'Daddy' last night, and although they had been worried but had wisely stayed where they are. When Akane returned some time later and told them that it was nothing for them to be worrying themselves with, for it was merely the blood that oozed out from a minor wound injury when their 'Daddy' had fell while stumbling through the woods carelessly. Still, there was something unnatural about the way Akane had said it that makes them felt that something was amiss.

"Subaru, come on ... lets' go ... Uncle Aidou's not around anymore ... " Akira beckoned for his elder twin to follow as he crept his way across the front lounge and made a bee-line for the direction of the door.

"... Are you sure, its' wise to be doing this? We could get into trouble with 'Father' - you know? " Subaru reminded, as he too mirrored his twin actions.

Akira ignored the urge to roll his eyes at his twin brother, as he replied. "Then why are you mirroring my actions, if you are so worried about getting caught by them ? "

"... " Subaru said nothing but sighed, looks like he had asked yet another stupid question in the eyes of his twin brother, again.

"Come on, let's hurry along before Aunt Seiren noticed us missing ... " Akira said, as he signaled to his twin that they had best get a move on, if they do not wish to be caught their father's bodyguard.

On the other hand, Zero had just been on the verge of dozing off when he felt a weight landing upon his mid-section which soon followed by another sound of 'click' as he heard the door leading to his room being unlocked. A second later, the door opened up to admit the entry of the elder twin - Subaru Kiryuu.

Then he heard the unmistakable sound of the younger twin's voice, calling out for his attention. "Daddy, we missed you so much!!! "

"... Why are the two of you here? " Zero asked, as he moved Akira away from his stomach and seat up straight on the couch such that Akira was now seated on his lap instead of perching atop of his mid-section.

"Of course, we are here to visit you - Daddy!" Akira responded, cheerfully as he beamed up at his favorite parent with his adorable boyish grin.

"Subaru? " Zero ignored the beaming boy in his lap as he turned to look at the other boy for an answer, knowing that Subaru would at least, answered his question seriously.

"... Yes, Akira's right ... We are indeed here to pay you a visit. " Subaru answered, after a moment of hesitation.

"But I supposed, the two of you had sneaked out instead of seeking permission from ... Kuran, right? " Zero questioned, as he eyed the two boys' with a knowing look.

The twins shared a look among themselves, before grinning sheepishly at their 'Daddy'. Zero said nothing, but shakes his head at the twins' antics. Instead, he asked.

"So how did the two of you managed to get in here? "

"Through the window (door)... " The twins responded, respectively.

"What?! Through the window?! Akira! Don't you know it's dangerous to do that?! " Zero admonished the younger boy, at least Subaru had the sense to use the door instead of climbing through the windows.

"But Daddy!!! I am not Subaru whom had the ability to wield the natural force of energy that is present in the air with that much control in order to achieve his aim! Only father and Subaru can do that ... although, I had inherited that power as well ... but my ability to control them was nowhere near Subaru's standards ... " Akira protested, with a whine.

"And why is that so? " Zero pressed on, looking down at the whiny boy with a stern expression on his features.

Akira mumbled something incoherently under his breath, which Zero failed to catch. "What was that?"

"... I wasn't listening to what Father was telling us before, when he started training us in the proper application and control of our powers ... " Akira repeated, sullenly.

"And why weren't you listening to what your father had been telling the two of you about the proper usage of the powers that the two of you had obviously inherited from him? " Zero asked, musing inwardly that it was apparently getting easier for him to think of the pureblood as the twins' father nowadays as compared to the time whereby the information had just been dropped upon them, like a bombshell.

"... I was day-dreaming ... " Akira responded, his voice getting smaller and smaller with each passing minute.

"About what?! " Zero continued to prompt, for he was having too much fun playing the role of a stern parent now to stop.

"... about what would be for lunch, apparently ... " This coming from Subaru, whom seemed to have taken a walk down the memory lane as well.

"Huh? " Zero started, blinking at Subaru with bewilderment before he asked for the elder twin to elaborate. "Lunch, did you say? "

Subaru nodded, as he elaborated his previous statement to his Daddy. "Well, it was two in the morning ... and it was the official timing for 'Lunch' to the vampires in general. Except for Akane whom apparently was sleeping away, for she was too used to the humans lifestyle and too lazy to switch back and forth between the two different lifestyles which she obviously was leading on daily basis. Anyway, you are the one preparing lunch for the day ... and Akira always wondered what would be on the menu when you offered to be the 'cook' for the day ... so, he wasn't really interested in hearing what Father's been saying on that day. "

"Oh ... okay, so am I usually the one whom does the cooking around the household? " Zero asked, sounding awfully curious now that Subaru had brought up the issue of the lifestyle which his future self had been living.

"... Well, not exactly ... we do kind of have our own housekeeper and maids around to do the job for us ... However, whenever they have the day off from work ... usually, you would ended up being the one cooking for us ... and occasionally Akane would helped out too ... that is, she was around and not sleeping away in her room. " Subaru answered, with an easy shrug of his shoulders.

"I see ... and coming back to the subject, perhaps - it might be better if you were to bring up the issue of Akira's obvious lack of knowledge in the field of power-control to your father's attention. I'm sure that he would not mind training Akira, since he seemed to have all the time in the world to laze about doing practically nothing ... these days. " Zero commented, looking over at Subaru as he made his request while ignoring the 'puppy' eyes' look which Akira had been directing towards him, since he steered the conversation topic back to the issue of Akira's lack of knowledge in the proper application of the power inherited from the pureblood, Kaname Kuran - himself.

"Daddy!!" Akira started to whine again, only to be muted by a stern glance that was being shot towards his direction by his favorite parent.

"No, there would be no way for you to worm your way out on this issue. I would not have you endangering the life of yourself by attempting something so reckless, again. Fancy making your way up here by climbing through the windows ... you could have break your bones if you had been unfortunate enough to fall. " Zero stated, his tone firm and leaving the younger boy no room for objections.

Akira pouted childishly before sighing aloud in resignation. He knew there would be no way that he could have changed his Daddy's mind, for both his parents had something in common. That would be the stubborn streak in them, once their mind had been made up - nothing that anyone said could have swayed their decisions. Unless, one of them were to give in to the others' and most of the time, his Daddy would be the one to cave. Occasionally, his father would be the one giving in to his Daddy's requests too.

Although, when it comes down to the point of any issues that concerns Subaru or himself. Majority of the time, both parents' shared the same opinions and their decisions would not be swayed once their mind was made up.

"Come here, Subaru ... " Zero said, when he noticed that his other son was still hovering near the door-way. It seems like Subaru was more reserved around both Kaname and himself, whenever Akira was around. Perhaps, it was due to the former's subconscious inkling that the adults would cared more for Akira than him, if the younger twin happens to be around. Inwardly, Zero wondered if there was anything that could be done to rectify the boy's thinking.

There was a moment of hesitation before Subaru attempted to move towards his direction, however their little session of bonding had been abruptly brought to an end with the return of his master. The familiar sound of his master's footsteps echoing down the hall-way nearly send Zero into a panic attack, for he was now looking about the vicinity of his room for places or areas where he deemed it possible and suitable for the two boys' to hide themselves from his master's discovery.

"... Dad, I think it's no longer necessary. " Subaru's voice was heard sounding up from behind, as soon as the door leading to his room was opened up by the unmistakable figure of his master.

---

Yagari Touga stared, for it seems like that was all he had been doing these days. Standing in front of him now, was a vampire child that looked remotely like his former disciple - Zero, when the boy had been younger. For a while, he had actually thought that his disciple had somehow shrank in sizes during the period of time whereby he had been away. After all, the child standing in front of him did displayed the similar aura of those whom belonged to the clan of the Kiryuu. Still, he could felt that something was amiss. For the child standing in front of him, does not have the unique eye colors of the Kiryuu.

"Kid? Ooi Kid, where are you?! You'd better not been sneaking out while I wasn't looking ... " Yagari Touga warned as he stepped into the room, eyeing both the boy standing in front of him and his surroundings with wariness.

"... " Subaru said nothing, but rolled his eyes upon the hunter's actions. Finally, he asked. "Excuse me, Sir ... but by calling out for 'Kid' ... How are we supposed to know whom exactly you are calling out for? "

Yagari blinked, as he slowly shifted his eyes back to the vampire child that had just spoken out aloud to him. "We? You mean, there's more than one of you - kids, being here? "

His senses as a hunter was failing him, for the aura he sensed coming from the occupants of this particular room had all reminded him vaguely of the Kiryuu Clan that he had some trouble telling them apart, and pin-pointing the aura which belonged to his disciple apparently.

"Yes, there's more than one of us down here ... so pray tell, which 'Kid' are you referring to just now? "

"... I meant my disciple - Kiryuu Zero ... " Yagari Touga gritted out in frustration, wondering just why the hell the room now contained a vampire child that looked so similar to his former disciple, and yet so different at the same time.

"... Daddy, your master's looking for you ... I supposed, that's the master you'd been telling us about right? " Subaru started, glancing over his shoulders at the hunched up figure whom had a hand over his younger brother's mouth to keep the boy from speaking up and complicating things further.

Zero sighed, he had initially thought that Subaru would at least be sensible enough to prevent calling himself 'Daddy' in front of his master - but apparently, he thought wrong. Letting go of his hand that had been around the other boy's mouth from earlier, he threw his younger son an apologetic look before turning towards his master and greeted the former - politely.

"Zero, what on earth is going on down here? Why is he calling you Daddy?! " Yagari started, as he jabbed a finger towards the silver-haired child's direction.

"Maybe because' he's our Daddy? " This coming from Akira, whom looked at the newcomer as though he was looking at an idiot.

Both Subaru and Zero glance over at the other boy in alarm, before sighing aloud in resignation. Looks like there was no point in trying to hide their relationship with one another from the veteran hunter, anymore. Reaching towards Akira, Zero pulled the boy nearer to him while calling out to Subaru's attention.

"Subaru, come here ... You are right, he is my master; the one person whom I respected from the bottom of my heart and the very same person whom taught me the skills of hunting vampires since my childhood years. " Zero said, his tone oddly calm despite the fact he was actually panicking on the insides.

"But Daddy ... I thought you said before that Grandpa Cross the one whom you respected? " Akira asked, looking up at Zero in confusion.

To which, Zero frowned as he wondered when on earth did he said that as he had had no recollection of that particular memory but his doubt was soon answered by the other twin.

"No, Akira ... Daddy didn't say it here, he said that /back home!/ " Subaru reminded, sounding exasperated at his younger brother's tendency to complicate situations when they had least required it.

"Oh, right ... Sorry, Daddy ... I forgot ... " Akira responded, as he looked up at Zero with the most innocent look he could mustered.

"... Its' okay. I don't blame you, confusion are bound to occur when things get complicated. " Zero added, as he patted the younger boy gently on the head.

"Subaru, its' alright. Don't be too hard on yourself ... You are only Akira's twin, not his inner-self. You have no control over Akira's actions nor thoughts ... Don't feel bad, just because Akira said something which should not be said." Zero assured, as he soothe the distressed boy with comforting words.

"Well, Zero ... I'm still waiting! " The impatient sound of Yagari Touga's voice reminded the silver-haired hunter, just how precarious their current situation had been.

Slowly but eagerly, Zero started to pull Subaru closer to himself and further away from his infuriated master as he addressed the said hunter with respect.

"Master Touga ... what exactly do you know about the time-vortex? " Zero started, figuring that this would be his only chance at explaining himself and calm his irate master down.

He figured that it would at least be better to let his master find out about his relations to the clan of the 'Fujiwara' then risking the chance of having his master getting ballistic and attempted to kill either the kids or the pureblood out of sheer rage.

"That taboo spell of the 'Fujiwara' Clan ? What about it? " Yagari frowned, not understanding where the conversation was going.

Zero took a deep breath, as he said. "The two boys here ... they're my kids from the future ... and one of them had evoked the said spell and brought them all back here ... "

"Wait a minute, you said ... they are your kids from the future? And they have been brought back to this particular point of the past due to the use of that taboo spell which belongs to the clan of the Fujiwara? How the hell did they managed to get their hands on that spell then?!" Yagari questioned, his frown deepening as he failed to see the link between how his former disciple kids' could have anything to do with the taboo spell of the 'Fujiwara' Clan.

"... Apparently, my future self gave it to them ... " Zero responded, not exactly lying though he had no idea whether or not Akane had knew the spell herself, or was he indeed the one whom supplied the girl with the said spell.

"Pray tell ... just how on earth did you get your hands upon the spell? " Yagari Touga was openly seething with anger now, as he narrowed his eye at the former.

"... I chanced upon it in the library of the Fujiwara's ... " Zero answered, truthfully as lying to his master was the last thing on his mind now. Not that he would lied to the former, anyway.

"... What were you doing in their library? No wait, scratch that ... Why were you even allowed into their residence in the first place?! "

"I was in there playing hide-and-seek with Ichiru ... and the reason why we'd been allowed in there ... that's because my mother's maiden name had been 'Fujiwara' ... "

Silence as he waited for his master to soak up all the information given, before Yagari Touga had exploded at the trio. "Whom is it? The boys here are too young to be able to complete such a complicated ritual spell, so it can't be them ... so who is it? The one whom evoked that taboo spell that mess with time?! "

"... Akane ... " Zero responded meekly, inwardly feeling guilt about betraying the girl to his master's wrath.

Upon getting the said response, Yagari Touga had muttered something along the lines of 'I should've known' before stalking off towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory with every intention to get things straighten out with that vampire girl whom he had chanced upon the previous night over at the school's lake.

---

Meanwhile, over at the Moon Dormitory building. Akane was just entering the said building, when she sensed a murderous hunter charging towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory at full speed.

"Damn! " Akane cursed, inwardly thankful that today had been a Friday and that would indicated no school for the members of the night-class.

"Takuma, get in there ... and do not let anyone from the night-class out here lest they risked suffering the wrath of a very pissed-off vampire hunter. " Akane instructed, throwing her tennis gear towards the stunned vampire as she braced herself for the onslaught to come.

The aura of the vampire hunter charging towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory that it started to get all the vampires restless.

"Takuma, what's going on? " Kaname Kuran, whom had sensed the overwhelming torrents of restlessness from the night-class members came down from the stairs and asked the fellow Vice-President whom had just returned from outside.

"... Akane says' she will handle the hunter, and told us to try and keep the night-class members under control. " Takuma responded, not really answering the question from the pureblood but relayed the message of what Akane had told him to inform the members of the night-class.

"I see ... " Kaname said knowingly. If Akane had said that she will be handling the situation, then he guessed it must have had something to do with their new teacher for this term - the hunter, Yagari Touga.

"I see that you've been expecting me to pay you a visit ... haven't you? " Yagari Touga started, looking at Akane with disdain.

"... " Akane said nothing, but shrugged. Looking the hunter boldly in the eye, as she responded. "I guess, I am prepared for your visit ... to a certain extent. "

Yagari Touga snorted, before narrowing his eye at Akane as he asked. "Whom are you and what is your relation with the Fujiwara? Why did you evoke that spell knowing that it was a taboo among both the vampires and the hunters?"

"I'm guessing that you had been told of the twins' existence by Zero - himself ... since you are here to question on my motives of evoking that spell. " Akane started, her voice calm and devoid of all emotions making it hard for both the hunters and the vampires around to gauge her current mood.

Inside the building, Kaname whom had heard Akane's words turned towards Seiren and asked if the former had seen the twins' around. Seiren shakes her head and responded 'No'. Almost immediately, the group of vampires had caught on to the idea of how the twins being absent from the dormitory had anything to do with the confrontation taking place out-front between the hunter and Akane.

"First of all, if you are asking about my relation to Zero in the future. I'll have you known - he happens to be one of my adopted parent. Secondly, my relationship with the Fujiwara's exactly the same as how Zero was related to them. My mother, like Zero's mother had been - was a member of that clan. However, unlike Zero's mother whom ended marrying into another hunter's clan ... my mother, had ended up with a vampire instead. Does that somehow answer your question? As to the reason behind why Zero had adopted me later on, that's because my family members had been brutally slaughtered by the hunter's association at another point of time ... Will that suffice? In answer to your last question, I can only say ... desperate time calls for desperate measures ... "

"... " Yagari Touga could felt his eyebrow twitching from irritation, but still there was nothing he could do to the said vampire girl. Then his mind traveled back to the two boys whom he had seen earlier on, in the room of his disciple. He knew instantly that the two boys had been vampires, but never did he really taken a close look at them except for the boy whom resembled a younger version of his disciple.

"Then enlightened me ... just whom did Zero ended up having those kids with?! " Yagari asked, wondering inwardly if he should contemplating on the idea of eliminating his disciple's future spouse.

Akane blanched, and Zero whom had just arrived with the twins in tow cringe at his master's question. Kaname Kuran, whom decided to step out from within the building was looking at Akane with anticipation now. Behind the hunter, Akane could see Zero shaking his head indicating to her not to reveal anything with regards to the pureblood being the other parent for the twins.

"Well ... I'm waiting ... " Yagari arched an eyebrow up in anticipation, as he stared at the vampire girl.

"... " Akane said nothing, biding her time as she started flickering her glances between Zero and the former's master.

The twins, whom seemed to have had enough of the strange atmosphere that hung between them decided to answer the hunter's question - themselves by introducing themselves to the veteran hunter.

"Sir, we never did have a chance to introduce ourselves to you ... I apologized for the delay in self-introduction. I'm Subaru Kiryuu ... It's been a pleasure to have finally gotten a chance to meet you in person. I've heard so much about your achievements in the fields of hunting vampires from my Daddy, and had always wanted to meet you since. "

Subaru said, his tone polite and laced with utmost respect for the veteran hunter. His mannerisms and body language poise with elegance, displaying the results from his pureblood upbringing.

Akane stared, stupefied by the way Subaru was handling the situation. It always caused her to stare in awe at how Subaru had resembled Kaname in the typical ways of managing and handling situations, and yet his looks had been a complete mirror-image of his other parent - Zero.

Apparently, Akane was not the only person being stunned around here. The members of the night-class whom had followed their leader out of the building were equally stunned, for they were now gaping at the sight that met their eyes. The future parents, meanwhile, had different reactions to Subaru's behavior. Zero was looking at Subaru with an unreadable expression, but it was obvious that he was proud of the boy. Kaname, on the other hand, was refraining himself from smirking while looking at Subaru with approval in his eyes.

Not wanting to be left out, Akira seized the opportunity to do his self-introduction as well. "I apologized for my crude display of behavior back in my Daddy's room. I'm Akira Kuran, and I must say ... You looked way cooler than that weird man whom kept on insisting for us to be calling him 'Grandpa Cross'. Don't you agree - Grandpa Yagari? " Akira ended his self-introduction with his usual innocent and naive look as he beamed up the the obviously dumbfounded hunter.

~ to be continued~

Date started: 09/05/09

Date completed: 09/05/09

Date edited: 09/05/09


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: XD So, Akane ended up being Takuma's cousin ... twisted right? Cat's out of the bag ... it might not be so bad that Subaru had introduced himself to the irate hunter, but Akira have to come into the picture and introduced himself as Akira Kuran, instead of just his first name ... What do you think will happen next?

---

Chapter 9 - The Aftermath!

For a while, nobody dared to breathe a word. The suspense in the air was stifling, as they tried to figure out what would be the irate hunter's next movement. The vampires of the night-class were eying the hunter warily, Aidou Hanabusa would have taken a step forward to attempt blocking his beloved leader away from the hunter's sighting range. However, the blond vampire was hold back by his cousin and the pureblood leader, himself.

Akane was having trouble believing the scene that had played itself out in front of her very eyes. Part of her wanted to compliment Subaru of his efforts in trying to placate the veteran hunter, and yet another part of her had wanted very much to strangle Akira whom just came out and practically announced to Yagari Touga whom hated all vampires in general that they were 'Purebloods'.

Subaru Kiryuu wished as though a hole would just opened up from nowhere in particular, and swallowed him whole. Someone really ought to try and teach his younger brother how to read moods, he knew his brother was attempting to lighten up the atmosphere by acting as a 'clown' to entertain the public. Still, his brother's actions would only add more fuel to the fire instead of putting them out, as it should have been under any other situations.

Zero Kiryuu could felt a migraine acting up now as he found himself having trouble deciding whether he should stand around and wait to see if his master would attempt to shoot the pureblood, or should he just make a grab for the twins and ducked for safety.

Kaname, meanwhile, was looking at Akira with an unreadable gaze. The pureblood was wondering why Akira was acting this way when he was certain that the boy was definitely smart enough to know that - now was not the time for jokes.

"What did you just call me? " Yagari Touga asked, looking down at Akira as he did so. The hunter was irritated, but he wanted to be certain that he had not be hallucinating earlier when he heard the term 'Grandpa Yagari' tumbling out from the said vampire child's lips.

"Grandpa Yagari? " Akira repeated, tilting his head to the side as he responded - staring into the eye of the hunter's with his lilac eyes.

"... Why are you calling me that? " Yagari asked, his tone gruff but bewildered.

"Because Daddy look up to you like a parental figure ... I think ... " Akira responded, sounding a little hesitant towards the end of his statement.

"You think?! Are you always this chummy with strangers whom you'd only just met? And what did you say your name was just now? " Yagari asked again, this time sounding incredulous.

"Well... It's not as though Daddy enjoy telling us all 'Grand-father' stories, as he called them ... I do not act chummy with all the strangers whom I get to meet in life. Besides, the people down here in this time weren't exactly strangers, since I knew them all in my own time as well ... As for my name ... I think you heard it right the first time around - I'm Akira ... Akira Kuran!" The boy replied easily, his body language relaxed unlike his elder twin.

"Kuran ... did you say? However, I wasn't aware that the Kuran family have any other living members with the sheer exception of Kaname Kuran - himself. Moreover, why is it that you are calling my disciple 'Daddy' when your family name happened to be a 'Kuran'. " Yagari responded, sounding skeptical now as he had no idea whether he should believe the vampire child's words.

Meanwhile, Zero was staring at his master in shock. This must be the first time ever, did he ever witnessed his master having an actual conversation with a vampire. Granted, it was a conversation between an adult veteran hunter and a vampire child. Still, it surprised him that his master would be willing to communicate with Akira.

Judging from the way they interacted with one another, for a while he almost thought that Akira had managed to 'charm' his master into forgoing the whole matter. Unfortunately, when he heard his master asking for Akira's name again - he knew, things are not going to end that easily. Then when his master questioned the reason behind Akira calling him 'Daddy' but was using the name 'Kuran' as his surname, Zero knew he was screwed. Either his master would try killing the pureblood, or the former would attempt to make his life a living hell for the upcoming days to come - if there had been no bloodshed by the end of tonight.

Akira fought the urge to roll his eyes at the hunter's reaction, was it so hard to believe that both Subaru and himself were related to one another? Was it really that hard to believe that they are the product of a same-gender relationship?

"Likewise, I wasn't aware that the Kiryuu family have any other living members aside from 'Daddy' - himself. Since, both the Kuran and the Kiryuu clan ... were left with only one living member, isn't it only right for us siblings to take up different family names? " Akira said in a sardonic manner, as he stared bravely into the eye of the hunter.

Yagari found himself inspecting the boy standing in front of him in details, following the end of the boy's words. He mentally noted the distinctive eye color of the 'Kiryuu' Clan, so the boy was related to his disciple - after all. However, aside from that little 'Kiryuu' trait that was visible to him, every other parts of the boy's features screamed the word 'Kuran' to him.

"Certainly, you are not trying to tell me that your other parent is that /Kuran/ standing down there? "

"Well ... wasn't that what I've been telling you since minutes ago? " This time around, Akira did rolled his eyes in exasperation at the hunter's words.

"Yeah right ... and pigs can fly! Do you think I would have believed something that ridiculous?! As though males would be able to have kids, and I'm affirmed that Kuran was not a girl and neither is my former disciple! " The hunter muttered aloud, refusing to believe what he had been told.

"Damn it ... What is it with you humans and your beliefs that KIDS can only be created between a man and a woman? I'll have you known, both Subaru and myself are the living proof that men are able to reproduce among themselves too ... " Akira Kuran exclaimed aloud.

"..." Yagari Touga was having trouble believing what he was hearing, but the boy seemed awfully serious about what was being said.

Subaru sighed, Akira's reaction was kind of within his expectations. His younger twin had always been self-conscious about other people thoughts and opinions about their parentage. Casting aside their uncles and aunts whom happened to know their parents on a personal basis, majority of the vampires out there in the society had trouble believing the fact that Akira and himself were related at all.

Partly, it was due to their use of different family name but there was also the fact they looked totally different from one another, despite being twins. With him looking more like his 'Daddy', most of his father's acquaintances in business would tend to overlook him and instead concentrated more on conversing with Akira. Likewise, with Akira looking more like their 'Father'; the younger boy would be overlooked by the hunters whom worked with their 'Daddy'.

Eventually, that ended up with Akira sticking to their 'Daddy' like a super-glue and him, tagging behind his 'Father' dutifully like a follower. He guessed that was how Akira's chumminess with strangers comes about, for in order for Akira to interact with the hunters' without any barriers between them. Akira would have to put down the airs of being a pureblood, and instead learn to communicate with them like a commoner.

In order for his younger brother to achieve that aim, the former would have to learn by 'acting' like that - in front of them too. Being family, they would of course, indulge the younger boy in his antics. However, not everyone would think that way; not even their family friends' with the exception of the Shikis' and the Ichijos' though; since they could be considered as family. Especially, when Shiki happened to be the cousin of their 'Father', and Ichijo being somehow related to Akane ... but their 'Daddy' and Akane refuses to let them know anything about that.

For the others whom had no idea of how his younger sibling was usually like, would have thought that his brother was being a clown. At least, that would be the majority of the vampires' nobles opinions upon Akira - for they thought his younger brother was lowering himself to the level of a mere mortal and was disgracing their pureblood's status by doing that. However, he begged to differ.

With him being silent by nature, and his parents' were both loners prior to their getting involved. Life in their household would have been too silent and 'dead', especially with Akane being away from home at most if not all of the time. Their parents' though very much in love with one another, would never act too lovey-dopey in front of the others; except on occasional situations. Therefore, its' entirely up to Akira alone to 'cheer' up the atmosphere during those times. Subaru's thoughts was brought to an abrupt end, when he heard the master of his 'Daddy' spoke up again.

---

"Zero ... please tell me, that the boy had been /lying/ about what was being said earlier on ... " Yagari started, as he stared at his former disciple with intent.

"... " Zero said nothing, but glanced down at his feet. What could he say? After all, the twins were indeed the ultimate result between the pureblood and himself. Granted, it had not happened yet ... but it would, eventually.

To say that Yagari Touga had been disappointed by his once favorite student's lack of response, was an understatement. Taking a moment to re-compose himself, the hunter asked calmly and quietly.

"... How did it happen? "

"If you are referring to how did the twins come about ... certainly, it would involved the common knowledge of sexual intercourse between those two ... but if, you are asking how is it possible for the two of them to be able to have kids despite their genders ... That have something to do with a spell, ancient spell at that ... and its' only available to the vampires' families ... "

Akane had been the one answering the hunter's question, seeing as Zero would had no idea how to respond to his master's query and Kaname would never bothered to answer Yagari's question if the said pureblood, does not deemed it necessary for the hunter to know anything with regards to that issue.

The sheer thought of Zero and the pureblood Kuran being actively involved with one another sexually, was driving Yagari Touga crazy. Despite knowing that it had yet to happen, but looking at the twins whom happened to be the ultimate result of their joining had pretty much send him over his edge. Without warning, Yagari spun around and stalked towards his disciple; glaring at his student with heated eyes as he gritted out in rage.

"How - Dare - You?! How - Could - You?! Not only are you now fraternizing with the likes of them ... and to think that you actually have the audacity to sleep with one too! Your father would be rolling in his grave, if he were to know of your actions! To make things worst, it just have to be a PUREBLOOD! Need I reminded you again, how another /Pureblood/ had been the one behind the tragedy of your clan?! "

Zero winced at the ferocity in his master's voice, before opening his mouth to protest. "Master Touga! I wasn't fraternizing with them and I certainly wasn't sleeping around with /KURAN/. Well ... at least not yet ... " The last part of Zero's words of protest had came out sounding weak, even to himself and he fought the urge to groan aloud at how pathetic he had sounded towards the end of his words.

Yagari snorted, before pulling out his gun and loaded it with new magazines. "Yeah right ... the keyword here is the term 'not yet'. Since you seemed to be rather against the idea of sleeping with the pureblood ... Then, I'm sure that you would not have minded the fact if I choose to blast him into oblivion! Would you?!"

"What?! No, wait a minute! Master Touga ... You can't do that! " Zero started to protest, but it was too late. The veteran hunter was already on his way over, stalking towards the direction of the pureblood.

The sound of a gun-shot rang out, just as the sound of a tree nearby collapsing on the pathway did. The collapsed tree was now lying in the path of the irate hunter, successfully preventing the said hunter from reaching the pureblood whom was still standing by the side of Akane.

Silence as every members of the night-class turned their eyes upon their pureblood leader, wondering if the collapsing of the tree had been a result from the pureblood's uncontrolled powers that leak out from the former's silent fury. However, upon taking a good look at their pureblood leader, they realized that the former was not even feeling irritated by the slightest bit. In fact, the former seemed to be amuse by the situation at hand.

The nobles were puzzled, they had thought it was the work of their pureblood leader but apparently they had thought wrong. Since it was not their pureblood leader whom had caused the tree to collapse with the power that leaks while being angered, then whom is it? However, the answer came to them easily enough with the younger Kuran speaking up.

"That was me ... No one, I repeat ... /NO ONE/ could attempted to harm /MY/ family and still get to walk away unscathed. Not even you, /HUNTER/! I could have let you go, this time around ... but that's only because I do not wish to upset my Dad further. " Akira said, his tone firm and laced with authority.

One could easily sense the underlying torrent of rage and warning threat that lurks underneath the boy's rarely used tone of solemnity.

"Akira, that's enough ... " Zero finally spoke up, interventing before Akira's fury caused the boy to lash out completely. After all, Akira's inability to control the power of nature fully could have easily bring the whole school down and that was the very last thing which Zero wanted to see.

"Master Touga, that's enough ... There's no point dwelling upon something that had yet to happen ... and besides Chairman Cross would be upset if there has been any form of bloodshed within his school. " Zero started towards his master's direction, his tone emitting the hint of a slight plea while he signaled for his elder son - Subaru to hurry and get the Chairman over.

The elder twin need not be told twice, he was gone as soon as he caught on to his Dad's underlying message. Subaru had most probably make use of his full vampire's speed, for in merely a few minutes time - the boy was back with the Chairman still looking disoriented and dizzy from the fast moving speed.

"Enough, Touga! You are here as an envoy for the hunter's association, and that was to keep an eye on Zero ... You are only allowed to shoot 'LEVEL E'. Don't you dare to forget that! The association and the Vampire Council would never let you off the hook, if you attempted to shoot a pureblood. Besides, no one else but Zero can make the decision on how he should live his life in future. " Chairman Cross said, as soon as he managed to recover himself from his dizzy spell.

Yagari Touga glared, and if looks could kill - every vampires in sight would have been dead by now. Zero winced when he noticed the death glare being directed towards him by his master, and he knew the former would not have hesitate to shoot him now if he had been caught engage in any bloodsucking activity by the said hunter.

"Subaru ... please inform your father about teaching Akira the proper ways to use his powers. I do not wish to have the school crumbling under the pressure of his uncontrolled powers whenever he was enraged. " Zero added, before he departed from the Moon Dormitory following behind his furious master and the Chairman, dutifully.

"...Remind me never to risk the wrath of Akira, until he knew how to grasp the concept of self-control. " Aidou Hanabusa commented to his cousin, Akatsuki Kain whom rolled his eyes at the blond vampire's words.

"I think, you should learn to keep your mouth shut and not to say anything that might warrant you under the 'death-list' of the trio. " That was the response which Akatsuki supplied to his cousin, before turning on his heels and departing from the site.

Meanwhile, Kaname Kuran need not wait for Subaru to broach the subject as he had already realized the potential danger to the general public if Akira were to lose his temper, literally and on periodic basis.

"Come here, Akira ... I think its' time for us to spend some 'quality' time together ... " Kaname Kuran announced in a tone that meant business and leave no room for negotiation. Akira, on the other hand, merely let out a sigh before making a move to follow his younger 'Father' towards the direction of the training room.

"That went well ... I supposed, at least no one was killed and no blood was shed ... " Akane muttered to herself, before turning and made her way towards the building of the Moon Dormitory.

---

Some time later; about eleven in the night, the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory - Takuma Ichijo was lying with his stomach down on the bed with a volume of manga out. However, instead of reading the said booklet of manga like he should be doing; he found his thoughts drifting off towards the conversation he had with Akane earlier on in the day.

"... Wait a minute, Akane's my cousin ... while her mother's related to Kiryuu ... That makes Kiryuu her grand-uncle or sorts, and she's the future adopted daughter of Kaname and Kiryuu ... Does that makes Kiryuu a relative of mine, in some ways or another? After all, we are going to be related through Akane ... Well, I guess trying to get along with Kiryuu wouldn't hurt. Casting aside the issue of Akane, Kiryuu's still going to end up as the future life partner of Kaname - isn't he? Then what about Yuuki-chan? "

Takuma frowned upon the thought of the female guardian, Kaname had been making sure that no one would be able to harm Yuuki, thus far and had only tolerated Kiryuu's existence based on that sheer reason up until recently. However, now with the arrival of Akane and the twins; Takuma knew his friend's feelings towards the fellow male guardian had changed somewhat. In the past, his friend's attention during the class change-over had been focused solely on Yuuki. Now, the attention had been spilt between the two guardians evenly or maybe the pureblood's attention had been on the male guardian more often than the female.

"Okay ... so what if Kaname's attention was now centered more on Kiryuu instead of Yuuki?! That's his business to resolve, not mine - right? Anyway, all things considered ... I think I should make an effort to interact with Kiryuu more ... " Takuma told himself resolutely, as he shifted his attention back to the manga volume which he had on hand.

Meanwhile, Akane was in her room brooding over the recent happenings too. Part of her wondered what on earth possessed her to let Takuma knows about the doings of his grand-father, and how it eventually led down to her being related to his family. This was not in her plans at all, the green-eyed blond vampire should not be finding things out through her of all people. In fact, the former would not realized what his grand-father had done to the 'Aisakas' until a member of the 'Kanzaki' Clan stopped by to pay him a visit after the whole Rido Kuran episode.

Then again, another part of her was relieved. At least, now she could allowed herself to get more "chummy" with the fellow vampire and need not worry about any possible strange feelings of romance that might arises between them, during their interaction. Takuma in particularly, since she was not at all interested in having a so-called 'fling' with her cousin and the father to her best friend. The last thing which she needs right now was to have an irate best friend chewing on her ears upon her return to the future.

After all, whatever that they did down here in the past would affected the future, in one way or another. At least, she knew her adopted parents and their closer family friends would be dealing with the new memories that arises and overwriting their old ones that has to deal with this specific period of the past.

With a sigh, Akane snapped herself out from her thoughts. No point dwelling upon something which she knew was going to happen anyway, instead what she should be doing now was to concentrate on her homework. She had a pile of assignments dealing with advanced application of mathematics that she had accumulated over the past few days, intending to work on them only during the weekends. However, judging from the pile of assignments laying atop of her 'study desk', she knew if she did not start working on them soon enough she will never be able to finish them on time.

Halfway through her homework, her hunter's sense clued her in on the fact that she was no longer alone. There was another vampire whom was within her room and was standing directly behind her. However, she chose to ignore the intruder for her vampire's sense had told her exactly whom the 'visitor' was. The intruder was none other than Subaru Kiryuu, her adopted younger sibling and the elder of the twins.

"Yes, Subaru? Anything's the matter? Why are you here in my room?" Akane asked, without glancing back at the boy.

"... Father's pre-occupied with Akira's training ... "

"... Are you bored? I'm sure Aidou would proved to be a very good entertainer ... " Akane responded, offhandedly.

"I'm not bored, I could always watch the TV if I'm bored out of my mind. Otherwise, I could go pissing off Uncle Aidou like you say just now ... "

"If not bored ... then why are you in here? "

"... I'm worried ... "

"For whom ?" Akane asked, despite knowing very well that the boy must have been worrying about Zero's situation.

"I think you jolly well knows whom I'm referring to - Akane ... " Subaru's response came, sounding a little irritated.

"... " Akane sighed, as she finally turned her attention away from her homework. Turning towards the boy, Akane said. "Subaru, there's no need for you to worry yourself over nothing. I'm sure, Dad's fine ... rather ... he will be fine. No matter how disturbed Yagari Touga was about the whole situation ... HE would never kill your 'Daddy'. At least, not when things hadn't even happened yet ... Besides, the Chairman will never let him kill your 'Daddy'. The worst that could have happened would be sending out your 'Daddy' on more hunting missions that involves 'LEVEL E' ... and maybe HE will try to keep your parents away from one another, to prevent any possible sparks of romance to be ignite between them.

Still, it would not hindered your parents' relationship with one another. Whatever that's bound to happen, will happen eventually. It's just a matter of time, and moreover - Yagari Touga's a mortal. He would have to die in some point of his life, but your parents were both Vampires. Granted, Dad's a mere 'LEVEL D' and his lifespan remained questionable but I'm sure whatever happened, your 'Father' would 'take care' of it - easily enough."

"You mean, by bounding Dad to his own lifespan and his blood? Now, when exactly will that happen? I know you have been feeding Dad for some time now, I could practically smell him on you ... " Subaru commented, dryly.

"... Don't worry yourself over something like that! Trust me, will you?! When I said your 'Father' would take care of things, he will ... Again, it's only a matter of time ... and when that happened, my job as your 'Daddy' food source will be officially over! " Akane said firmly, and determinedly.

"Well, if you say so ... " Subaru shrugged, before dropping himself unceremoniously on the bed of Akane's and earning himself a sharp look from his elder adopted sister.

"Go to your father's room, if you want to sleep ... " Akane said, her tone mildly miffed.

"No ... I wanna sleep here, tonight ... " Subaru murmured as he snuggled himself deeper into the soft pillows of Akane's bed.

"... Then you'd best make sure to not wake me up in the middle of the night, when you decided that you need your lunch or whatever meals which you felt inclined to take ... " Akane warned, earning herself the sounds of a light snore emitting from the silver-haired boy whom was now sleeping on her bed.

With a sigh, the sandy-brown haired vampire shifted her attention back to her assignments and decided to ignore the sleeping boy for the rest of the night.

---

"Did anyone of you happened to see Subaru around? " Kaname Kuran asked, as he entered the dining hall at two in the middle of the night. He had just ended his training session with Akira, and had send the boy off to rest and recuperate when he found the elder twin boy missing from his room.

"... No, we haven't seen him anywhere around ... Perhaps, he's with Kiryuu? " Akatsuki Kain suggested, for he too was wondering where the boy had sneaked off to - now that their pureblood leader had brought up the issue to their attention.

"No, that's impossible. Subaru's not Akira, he had too much sense in him to attempt something this reckless ... on his own." This coming from Shiki Senri, whom joined the group in the dining hall with Rima Touya in tow.

"Then what of Akane? Perhaps, Subaru's with her? " Takuma spoke up, drawing everyone's attention towards his direction. "Because, I thought I heard her talking to the boy a while ago when I passes by her room ... "

"Right, I think I'll check on them in a little while's time ... for now, let's eat. " Kaname Kuran started, steering his friends' attention away from the elder twin and Akane for the time-being.

Half an hour later, Kaname entered Akane's room not surprised at what he had found. Sleeping on the bed soundly and comfortably was the unmistakable figure of his 'missing' son; and Akane was lying heads down on the study desk atop of an open mathematics textbook.

The girl had probably dozed off in the midst of her studying, and knowing that the girl was going to wake feeling uncomfortable if she were to remain asleep in that awkward position for another few hours. Kaname made the decision to move the girl towards the bed instead, thus he moved forth and picked the sleeping girl up in a bridal style manner as he walked them both towards the direction of the bed.

Summoning forth a little of his power, he moved the blanket away from the emptied side of the bed before placing the girl down. After which, he pulled the blanket up to Akane's chin before moving over to Subaru's side and did the same to the boy as well. Pecking the boy gently on the forehead, while giving a gentle pat to Akane's head - the pureblood started to head towards the doorway leading to the outside of the room but not before, he switched off the lights in the room.

Stepping out into the hallways, Kaname was surprised to find his childhood friend and the Vice-President of the Dormitory loitering around the outside of the guest-room assigned for Akane's use.

"Takuma, is anything the matter? " He greeted, drawing his distracted friend's attention to him.

"Huh? Oh, no ... nothing's the matter ... I'm just wondering whether Akane's awake ... " His friend had responded, somewhat hesitantly.

"No, she's asleep ... Was there anything that makes you wanted to speak to her at this late of time? Certainly, you would know by now that she's far too accustomed to the daily lives of a normal human being than to keep up with the nocturnal hours of our lifestyles ... " Kaname questioned, arching an eyebrow elegantly as he speak to his friend with a look of skepticism in his eyes.

"Right ... I guess, I kind of forgotten about that little detail ... I'll speak to her, tomorrow then ..." Takuma Ichijo said, as he started to leave the area and headed for the privacy of his shared room with the cousin of the pureblood, Shiki Senri.

Kaname said nothing but eyed his friend strangely, somehow he had a feeling that something had happened between Akane and his friend - Takuma, which he had not been informed. Rather, the duo had no intention of letting him know. Not that he felt offended or anything, but he wanted to make sure that nothing strange was going on between the two. Especially, in the case of Takuma.

After all, Akane was from the future and should know better than harboring any form of feelings towards his friends whom were practically all considered to be her future uncles.

Takuma though, was another matter entirely. The sheer idea of the possibility of Takuma 'falling' for his future adopted daughter was worrying, after all his friend had been getting far too interested in Akane's affairs recently that it was enough to trigger the warning bell in his mind to start ringing.

Nonetheless, there was still no concrete proof that his friend was interested in Akane yet. Kaname decided that he should just leave things be for the moment, and remained silent while he observed the situation from the dark. With that thought in mind, he turned on his heels and departed for the direction of the study. He had some pressing matters that required his urgent attention, as for the issue of his friend's growing affections for Akane, he could always assigned Seiren to keep an eye on them and later report the findings to him.

~to be continued~

Date started: 10/05/09

Date completed: 12/05/09

Date edited: 12/05/09


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Sorry that my last chapter is a little short, but well ... Anyway, Kaname had it all wrong XD Takuma's interested in knowing more about Akane, not because of him harboring any romantic feelings for the girl ... but because, he thought Akane reminded him a little too much of himself prior to his finding out his being related to Akane XD Now that he knew of his relationship with Akane, he just wanted to show his concern for the girl ... but then again, guess it can't be helped ... with Kaname not knowing anything about their relationship :P

In this chapter, Yagari accidentally let it slips to Zero that Shizuka Hiou was still alive during the midst of his rants. On the other hand, Takuma's plan to get friendly with Zero was temporary put on hold due to his grand-father's impending visit to the school. Thus, he ended up focusing his attention upon Akane instead.

---

Chapter 10 - The arrival of Ichijo Asato, Part 1

Yagari Touga muttered to himself relentlessly under his breath, as he made his way back towards Kaien Cross living quarters. He had arrived at the school with every intention to check on his former disciple's condition, and then probably let it slip to his student that the pureblood whom was responsible for his family's tragical end was still very much alive out there. However, what did he end up chancing upon when he finally did locate his former disciple on campus?

He end up finding his once favorite student attempting to suck a female student's blood, and not just any random student - a vampire student's blood. Then, a certain pureblood going by the name of Kuran had decided to step into the picture by holding his former disciple in a deadly possessive manner. Next, he found himself staring into the face of a young vampire child that reminded him strongly of how his disciple had looked several years ago before the tragedy of 'Kiryuu' Clan occurred.

Following which, he was clued in on the fact that the kids whom were calling his disciple 'Daddy' had been time-travelers from the future; after making use of the taboo spell of 'Time-Vortex' which belongs to the clan of the Fujiwara. When being pressed for the details of how the kids had ended up using a spell which belongs to the clan of the Fujiwara, his disciple finally had it in mind to reveal to him of just how related the 'Kiryuu' was to the 'Fujiwara'.

To think that he had been friends with the 'Kiryuus' for such a long period of time, and yet his disciple's father had not even bothered to let him in on the fact that the kids' mother had been a Fujiwara prior to the marriage? Yagari had no idea what was worst, being kept in the dark by his friend and disciples for nearly over twenty years on the issue of their being related to his arch-nemesis or the fact that his once favorite student was not only fraternizing with the vampires, and would eventually sleep with one in the near future.

Because Yagari had been too overwhelm by the recent events that had transpired over the past twenty four hours or sorts, he failed to realize that no matter how soft his voice had been or how his intention was to only rant as a form of venting his frustration - Zero would still be able to catch them. Seeing as his former disciple's vampire traits has already been awaken, and among them includes the sensitive and keen sense of hearing.

"Master Touga ... What do you mean by that woman was still alive? " Zero asked, pausing in his steps as he stared at his master with intent.

"You heard me ... Of course, I'm referring to that pureblood woman whom wiped your family out and the very same person whom bite you ... " Yagari Touga said, as he avoided looking at his disciple in the eyes. For he had no idea whether he could looked at Zero, and still keep himself away from the urge to kill the former.

With that, the veteran hunter turned on his heels and left for the exit of the academy. Ignoring the ex-hunter's questions from behind, he had every intention to visit a bar in town and perhaps tried to get himself wasted so that he might take his mind off this entire baffling situation. On the other hand, Zero merely stared after his master's departing figure numbly.

Somehow, Zero simply had no idea of how he should be reacting to this particular piece of news. Logically, he should probably be bristling with anger at the mere mention of Shizuka Hiou's existence, but funnily enough he felt nothing but sheer numbness. Alright, he supposed if the said pureblood was standing in front of him ... he might be able to react somewhat agitatedly to the former's presence. However, this does not seems to be the case at this point of time.

After all, his master was merely letting him in on the fact that Shizuka Hiou was still alive, undead somewhere out there and probably Ichiru would be too. If his twin was still alive, not killed by the pureblood after the former had taken him away following his being bitten and left behind alone to rot on the front porch of his family residence.

"Honestly, what did master expect me to do by telling me something like this now? Does he expect me to just head out there seeking revenge on Shizuka Hiou, without knowing just where exactly the former had hidden herself from public eyes? " Zero muttered aloud to himself, as he frowned over the recent information which his master had just dumped upon him and expect him to soak it in like a sponge.

Shaking his head at the notion, Zero decided that he will dwell on the issue at another point of time or when Shizuka decided to show herself in front of his presence. Until then, there was nothing that he could have done except to stand around and wait for things to happen.

---

When Akane woke, she was genuinely surprised to find herself lying atop of her bed. Since, she had no recollections of her shifting herself away from the front of her study desk and made her way to the bed. Then how did she ended up waking on her bed and was currently on the verge of smothering Subaru by using the poor boy as her bolster.

"... I hate to say this when you've just awaken ... but damn it, Akane let go of me ... I need to BREATHE! " Subaru Kiryuu had all but shouted into the eardrums of the disoriented girl, upon realizing that the girl had awoken on her own and thus would not be biting his head off for trying to wake her so that he could actually breathe.

Akane blinked twice to rid the sleep away from her eyes, before realizing that Subaru was actually suffocating in her crushing hug. Hurriedly, the disoriented girl let go of her adopted sibling abruptly while shooting the former an apologetic look.

"See ... this is why you shouldn't be sleeping here last night ... Certainly, you would know I'm bound to smother you like a bolster once I get too comfortable on the bed. " Akane commented, as she tried desperately to keep herself from flushing in embarrassment.

Subaru Kiryuu fought the urge to roll his eyes at his elder sister, as he shrugged out his response. "Well ... I do know the risk involved ... but still, I asked for it ... so I'd no one else to blame but myself. Then again, I doubt I would be smothered by you if Father had not came in last night and moved you away from the desk. "

Upon Subaru's statement, Akane froze in the midst of combing through the tangles in her hair using her fingers as she turned towards her adopted brother in shock. "What?! You mean, Kaname-sama was in here last night? "

Subaru nodded, as he too started to comb a finger through his hair that had been messed up during his sleep.

"When?! Why wasn't I aware of that?" Akane asked, still stunned by the fact that Kaname Kuran had came into her room at some point of time, late last night and she took no notice of the former's presence.

"For heaven's sake ... you slept like the 'dead'. Certainly, you won't be able to realize that Father had been in here at all!" Subaru responded, as heaved himself off the bed and had every intention to head back to the room of his father to get himself ready for the day.

"... " It took Akane several minutes to shake herself out from her stupor-like mode and sprang into action, going about her morning routine swiftly. For she had every intention to arrive at the dining hall of the Moon Dormitory, in time to collect her breakfast tray before the kitchen crew members disappeared somewhere to have their well-deserved rest.

Not that, Akane would have any problem with the idea of preparing her own meals over the weekends; but she was just plain lazy to do so. It was one thing to be cooking for herself back in her own time period, and totally another while she was stuck here in the past. At least, while she had been in her own time she was residing within the Sun Dormitory and the students residing in the Sun Dorms often took their meals at the school cafeteria.

However, the menu over at the school cafeteria had remained the same over the whole year and honestly, Akane felt sick and tired of the same menu that was being served all the time that she had actually requested to be joining the night-class members for meals. Seeing as it was practically Ichijo Asami, her best friend whom was leading the night-class back in her own time and in addition to the fact that she just happened to be the adopted daughter of Kaname Kuran. Akane had no problem gaining free access to the kitchen of the Moon Dormitory whenever she felt like it.

Now even while the kitchen would still be opened up for her usage should she felt the desire to cook something for herself, during her period of stay here in the past - since Kaname probably would not have a problem with that. Akane still felt uneasy, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the kitchen crew working in the Moon Dormitory were different from those whom work in the very same kitchen back in her own time. Secondly, there was also the issue of the opinions of the rest of the night-class members.

Although, the majority of the night-class members had been told of the fact that they have three time-travelers living together with them in the Moon Dormitory. Among them included the future twin sons of their pureblood leader, and a distant relative of Kiryuu Zero whom was later adopted by Kaname Kuran as a daughter. Still, it did not changed the fact that Akane simply does not feel comfortable being surrounded by the night-class members. Aside from the usual group that always seemed to be following her future adopted 'Father' around the place, since those members she knew and some had even knew her since she was still in diapers.

It was bad enough to have the common class vampires of the night-class debating on the special arrangements which Kaname had made on her behalf to the kitchen crew, the last thing she needs right now was to have the pureblood giving her the permission to roam and use the kitchen freely as though she owns the place.

Back in her own time, she would have no problem behaving in such manners because practically everyone in the Moon Dormitory had knew and accepted the idea of the name 'Kiryuu' being tied to the name of their pureblood leader 'Kuran' since decades ago. Having her name being 'Kiryuu Akane', and in addition to her being the best friend of Ichijo Asami whom was the President of the Moon Dormitory in her time, nobody within the said dormitory had any problem with regards to her free access and usage of the facilities within their vicinity.

Here though, things were different. For there would be no Ichijo Asami to help her fend off any potential trouble-makers, granted her cousin Takuma would be around and most probably would helped her out, if the situation comes around. Still, it would be different as nobody aside from themselves knew of their relationship with one another. The last thing that she required now was to have the members of the night-class misunderstanding Takuma's intention of helping her in a romantically sense.

---

"Ichijo-sama, the books which you ordered have just arrived ... Do you need me to bring them upstairs for you? " The maid of the Moon Dormitory, asked as she noticed the approaching figure of Takuma Ichijo.

"... " Takuma stared at the pile of books which the maid held on hand, and sweat dropped. Did he really ordered this many books from the online catalog? Why did he not remembered anything of it? Taking a latest volume of his favorite manga, he told the maid to help bring the rest of the books up to his room.

When he noticed that the maid was still hanging around, he asked. "Is anything else the matter?"

The maid hesitated for a second, before responding. "Is Kaname-sama available now? I've an urgent permission slip for him to sign ... "

"What kind of permission slip? "

"A guest whom intended to stay over-night here at the dormitory, send someone over just now with that request. " The maid answered, as she handed over the request slip to the Vice-President of the Dormitory.

"I'll sign them on his behalf then, the President's still busy attending to other important matters on hand. " Takuma Ichijo responded, as he took his pen out ready to sign the permission slip.

Being the Vice-President of the Dormitory, it was within his authority to grant permission for any sorts of activities or requests for using their dormitory facilities. However, seeing as Kaname was always the one attending to such matters; people had a tendency to forget his role as the Vice-President. Hence, the only time that people actually remembered him was when Kaname was either away or pre-occupied.

Taking the request slip from the maid, Takuma scanned through the content of the page while he signed his name at the end of the slip granting the permission for the guest's over-night stay request. Half-way through, his eyes caught sight of the familiar name which belongs to be his grand-father - Ichijo Asato, and he froze.

"What ...?! Why is /HE/ coming over now?! "

"... Huh? No idea, would you perhaps like to give them a call and check things out - yourself? " The maid asked, as she diverted her glance towards the direction where the telephone of the dormitory was stationed.

"No ... that's fine ..." Takuma responded, as he turned immediately on his heels to depart from the foyer and made a bee-line for his friends' rooms instead.

Ironically, the first room he dash into and entered just happened to be the room of Akatsuki Kain and Aidou Hanabusa. Both vampires were apparently on the verge of dozing off, and Aidou threw him a look of annoyance as he announced to them in a near panic attack that his grand-father was coming over that night.

"Damn it, Takuma! Are you even a vampire at all?! Why are you so energetic in the morning?! How I wish you could be like the vampire in that manga which you lend me earlier on ... One whom would simply turned into dust upon being subjected and exposed to sun-light." Aidou Hanabusa complained, as he hide his face into the middle of his pillow as he tried to ignore the morning rays that shone through the window panes of his room, when the Vice-President had pulled the curtains of his room windows' wide open.

"How I wish I could just disappeared into nothing but sheer dust too ..." Takuma muttered under his breath, as he plastered himself to the panes of the windows' to his friend's room.

"So what if your grand-father is coming?!... Takuma, I honestly don't see the reason behind your fussing ... I know he's scary and you are afraid of him to a certain extent but still, there's no need for your reaction to be this exaggerated right? Besides, he's part of the Vampire Council, and if the Hunter's association can send their envoy over for an inspection check. I don't see the reason why his being the 'HEAD' of the 'Vampire Council' can't do the same thing himself ... " This coming from Akatsuki Kain, whom peered at the blond Vice-President through his sleepy eyes.

"... I know ... but of all the possible timings, why now?! Certainly, the two of you could see where I'm coming from ... With my grand-father coming over tonight, how could we possibly hide Akane and the twins' from his sighting range?! " Takuma responded, distress apparent in his voice.

Not to forget his own inner fear for his grand-father, and topping it off altogether - he now had to take Akane's feelings into consideration too. He could only hoped Akane can refrain herself from killing off his grand-father, in public. Perhaps, he can try to send Akane off to bed earlier tonight? Then again, Akane's suspicion would be roused if he were to do that ... So what can he do to prevent the two of them from encountering one another?!

"... No idea, maybe you want to talk with Akane or Kaname-sama? Surely, they will be able to ease your doubts; worries or whatever it is that was bothering you so much ... " Akatsuki suggested, wishing very much that the Vice-President would simply leave them alone to sleep off their fatigue and stop bothering them.

"... I guess ... " Takuma murmured to himself, as he made a move to leave the room. However, half-way across the room he was hit by a pillow coming from Aidou Hanabusa's direction. When he turned towards the former with an inquiring look on his features, he was met up by an irritated growl from the fellow vampire seeking his cooperation to draw the curtains before leaving.

"Sorry, I forgot ... " Takuma mumbled out an apology as he went back to the windows and draw the curtains back down, before departing from his friends' room.

"Damn, I wonder how Shiki can survive the idea of living together with him ... " Aidou muttered aloud, as Takuma Ichijo left the room.

"... Aidou, enough ... just sleep, will you? Besides, Shiki's more tolerant to the idea of sun-light because of the nature of his job as a model. " Akatsuki Kain said to his irate cousin, as his cousin's whine was starting to get on his nerves too.

---

"Akane's obviously out, so that left me with the only option available - I'll have to go to Kaname ... let's hope whatever business he had to deal with had been smoothly resolved. The last thing which I felt like doing was to add on further to his troubles ..." Takuma thought, as he sighed aloud while making his way over to the pureblood's room.

"Uncle Takuma? Are you here to look for my father? " Subaru Kiryuu asked, as he met the green-eyed blond vampire just outside of the pureblood's door.

"Aa ... Subaru ... Yes, I'm here to see your father ... Do you mind letting me in? " Takuma responded, forcing a smile towards the direction of the boy despite his inner turmoil.

"Sure, why not ... " Subaru shrugged, as he pushed open the door and walked right in; without even bothering to knock on the door.

"Father ... Uncle Takuma's here to see you ... " Subaru's voice rang out loud and clear within the walls of Kaname Kuran's room, before making his way to the bathroom and get himself ready for the day. Akira, on the other hand, was still asleep on the pureblood's large Queen-size canopy bed.

A few seconds later, the pureblood was seen beckoning for Takuma to enter the privacy of the 'study'. Takuma could only hoped that he was not intruding the former in the midst of going over another business proposal from the company which is in charge of the mass production and distribution of the blood tablets which Kaname and the rest of the nobles had came up with during the start of the whole pacifism campaign and the founding of Cross Academy.

"Takuma, is anything the matter? You seemed to be rather distress over something ... to me ..." Kaname said, mentally noting his friend's unnatural and tense posture.

"... Something's came up ... apparently, my grand-father had decided to pay us a visit tonight ... and ..."

"We can't let him discover or notice the existence of Akane and the twins ... am I right to say that? " Kaname finished the hanging statement for his distressed friend.

"Well ... yeah, something like that ... " Takuma finished, lamely.

"... That's indeed a problem, the last thing which I need now was to have Ichiou finding out about their existence as well ..."

At this point of time, Subaru's voice cuts into the midst of their conversation and said. "It's not us that you should worry about, it's Akane. After all, we could simply be send off to 'Daddy' for the night ... and most probably be asked to spend the night over at the Chairman. "

"... Subaru, why aren't you in bed yet?" Kaname asked, frowning.

"Certainly, you are not asking me to go back to bed after just waking up? " Subaru shot back in return, looking at his 'Father' expectantly.

"... Now why would Akane be a problem? I'm aware that she had many charms and spells which she could be using to mask her heritage as a vampire, combined with her being a day-class student ... we could easily pass her off as one of the school guardians. " Kaname voiced his doubts aloud, as he ignored his son's remarks and glanced over to his friend for a response instead.

"... " Takuma tensed, unsure if he should reveal the reason behind Akane's immense dislike of his grand-father to his pureblood friend and leader. If he did, he would have to face Akane's wrath later for the girl had specifically warned him off against the idea of revealing the information to anyone else, randomly. However, if he was to keep the information to himself and away from his friend's knowledge he feared that Kaname would indeed send Akane out to welcome his grand-father under the disguise of being a school guardian.

"Well ... Takuma, I'm still waiting for your response ... " Kaname prompted, and figured that there must be indeed something which his friend knew about Akane, and was not telling him.

"Takuma ... I'm warning you, don't you dare to let it slip! " Akane's voice cuts in, warningly before Takuma could cave into Kaname's questioning.

Turning her eyes towards Subaru, Akane told the boy to head off to the dining hall and collect her breakfast tray on her behalf. Once she was affirmed that the boy was no longer in hearing range, she turned her attention back to the awaiting pureblood and said.

"I apologized for interrupting the midst of your conversation, however ... seeing as the topic of conversation involved me ... I don't see any reason for me to remain watching and listening in silence. "

"Akane ... " Takuma started, only to have the girl cutting him off.

"Takuma, /No/. Do not let anyone else knows about /that/! I do not wish to complicate things further ... " Akane said, determinedly and resolutely.

"... "

"Akane, I was told that you would have a problem with Ichiou's arrival ... Was there a specific reason why? " Kaname questioned, using his voice of authority as he did so.

" ... Yes, there is ... However, I do not wish to reveal the true nature of that particular reason. Let's just says that I'm not particular fond of the idea and prospect of having to deal with him ... but should you desire for me to meet him, then I will. After all, it is within a noble's responsibility to heed the words of a pureblood ... so ... "

"In other words, you will do as I say - if I choose to issue an order or make a demand ... " Kaname finished the sentence on Akane's behalf, simply and quietly.

Akane shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant but the tension in her body language betrayed her true feelings to the whole situation. Standing by the side of the female vampire, Takuma Ichijo mentally noted the slight clench of Akane's fists as they both awaited for the pureblood's final verdict.

'Looks like, I'm not the only one with a problem on emotional aspect when it comes down to the inevitable meeting with Ichiou ...' Kaname thought, as he noted the way Akane had tensed visibly over the notion of meeting the prominent figure of Ichijo Asato.

"Never mind, I'm sure Yuuki and Kiryuu will be able to handle their roles as the school guardians' well enough for tonight. There would be no need for Akane to be joining them, but ... she would still be required to be on her best behavior if she were to chance upon Ichiou within the walls of the dormitory, during the period of his visit. Is that clear? " Kaname told his friend, Takuma but his eyes was centered upon the tense vampire girl while he said the words.

Both Takuma and Akane nodded to his words, before removing themselves from his presence. While Takuma heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed visibly, Akane's still tense from the knowledge of the impending arrival of Ichijo Asato.

"Akane? Are you alright? " Takuma asked, once they were out of the pureblood's sighting range.

Akane nodded, but still did not speak. For she did not trust herself with words, she should have known. By coming this far back in time, it would be inevitable for her to meet up with Ichijo Asato - at least once. Despite the blood relations which they shared with one another, Akane could never quite managed to think of that hypocrite as her grand-father. It was a good thing that by the time, she had been born - the said vampire was already dead so she would not be required to have any form of interaction with the former.

Takuma sighed, it was obvious that Akane was still affected by the news of his grand-father's impending visit. Well, at least Kaname did not expect the girl to be welcoming his grand-father's arrival out front together with the rest of the night-class.

"... Takuma, have the maids send up all my meals for the rest of the day. I would be keeping myself isolated in my room, lest I lashes out at anyone during the midst of /HIS/ presence. " Akane said, as she turned on her heels and headed back for the privacy of her room.

"... " Takuma nodded, despite knowing that Akane would not be able to see his response with her back facing him. Then again, the girl was making a request not asking a question. Therefore, whether or not did he respond to her request would not matters.

Nodding towards Subaru whom was making his way back up the stairs with Akane's breakfast tray nicely balanced on his palms, Takuma made his way down the stairs with every intention of locating the maids working in their dormitory and informing them of Akane's situation.

---

Hours had passes by since the news of Ichijo Asato's impending arrival was dropped upon the residents of the Moon Dormitory. The information had also been relayed to the school guardians', as well as the Chairman. Lessons for the night-class have been canceled, for the whole population of the night-class would have to remain behind at the Moon Dormitory to welcome the grand-father of their Vice-President; as well as the 'Head' of the Vampire Council.

Akane, meanwhile, was still hiding herself away in the privacy of her room. Her agitation with regards to Ichijo Asato's arrival had caused her to snap three of her pencils in stress and frustration. She was suddenly thankful that she was not Akira, for otherwise most of her things would have been tarnished beyond the status of repairing when it comes down to the time for Ichijo Asato to leave the academy grounds.

Takuma Ichijo, on the other hand, was distracted. His eyes was constantly flickering between the front door of the Moon Dormitory and the staircase of the dormitory. It was not that he was anticipating his pureblood's friend arrival, but because he was worried about how Akane was faring upstairs, alone. He had no doubt that the girl would be frustrated and edgy, the last time he had went up to the girl's room and check on the former. He was just in time to witness how Akane's stationery had broke from the sheer amount of agitation rolling off the girl's aura.

It might have been easier for Akane to manage with the twins around to distract her from destroying her own belongings in the room, but unfortunately - the twins had been send over to the Chairman's place following Akira's awakening from his slumber. For it would simply not do for them to be spotted by his grand-father, and Kiryuu had been told specifically to keep the twins occupied so that they would not wandered off by themselves.

For Zero Kiryuu, the said guardian was now getting himself ready for the night's duty. Keeping his eyes upon the twins' and keeping their attention occupied so that they would not be wandering off by themselves, would be his utmost important mission for tonight. However, before that he would need to head off and joined Yuuki in the task of welcoming the 'Head' of the Vampire Council - Ichijo Asato, to the school.

During which period of time, the twins would be left under the care of the Chairman. Now he only hoped his adopted father have the ability to keep the twins in line, and not to have them manipulated him into taking his attention off them. A quick glance at the clock in his room notified him of the impending timing scheduled for Ichijo Asato's arrival, tightening his school tie and fastening them up to his collar properly. Zero set off for the gate of the school.

This must be the first time ever he made such an effort to dress himself up in his school uniform properly, but he had no choice. The Chairman had demanded for him to at least made an effort in looking presentable while in the said vampire's presence, for Ichijo Asato was too much of a prominent figure in both the humans; hunters and vampires society to be simply cast aside like a 'nobody'.

In the human world, Ichijo Asato had founded and set up the company known to the general public as the 'Ichijo's Entreprise' dealing majority with international trade in courier and cargo shipping, and recently seemed to have expanded into the fields of telecommunications as well. Within the vampire society, he was otherwise known as Ichiou - the 'Head' to the Vampire Council, and one of the oldest and prominent figure in the society. Whereas, in the hunters' world - the former was well-known for his crafty ways of handling matters to be wriggling himself out of trouble, whenever something bad happened. Hence, another reason to add on to his master's immense hatred and detest for vampires in general.

"Zero?! Zero, are you in there?! The Chairman told us to hurry, the 'Head' of the Vampire Council is bound to be arriving soon! " Yuuki's impatient call for his attention sounded just outside his door, snapped him out of his reverie.

"Alright ... I'm coming, cease your incessant yelling ... Its' getting on my nerves ... " Zero shouted back at the impatient female guardian, from his position in front of his wardrobe's mirror.

With that said, Zero walked over to his room's door and pulled it open before stepping out. Almost immediately, he caught sight of his friend's stunned expression and frowned.

"What?! Why are you staring at me - like that?!"

Yuuki Cross shakes her head rapidly in response, "No ... no ... I'm just surprised to see you look so ... tidy, yes ... tidy's the word ... "

Zero merely rolled his eyes at his friend's words, before muttering out a response of annoyance. "Well, the Chairman demanded for me to look /presentable/ tonight ... and he threaten to cut off my weekly allowance if I choose not to heed his words, tonight ... "

"Eh?!" Yuuki blinked up at her friend, stupidly. However, before she could asked for an elaboration from her friend, she noticed that Zero had already started walking and was quite a distance away from her now.

On the other hand, it was not that Zero had any qualm about having his weekly allowance being cut off entirely. In fact, he probably would not cared for a slightest bit whether the Chairman was giving him any before. However, the miserable sum of weekly allowance would matters a lot to him these days, especially with Akane and the twins around. Since, through his observation, he realized that Akane had felt no guilt about spending his money claiming that it would eventually be hers' one of these days.

With a sigh, Zero continued to walk towards the front of the school gate, not caring if Yuuki would be able to keep up with his strides. After all, he was too deep in his thoughts to have noticed that the speed in his steps had gradually increased until it was one that already exceeded the speed range of a typical and normal human-being. It was not until he heard Yuuki's voice complaining that he was walking too fast, did he noticed that he was already approaching the gate of the school.

Forcing himself to a stop before he could found himself colliding with the approaching members of the night-class, Zero was hardly surprised to find himself staring up into the face of one Kaname Kuran.

"... Kiryuu ... " Kaname Kuran greeted with a polite nod of his head.

"... Kuran ... " Zero responded, his tone equally subdued and miraculously enough, actually came out sounding polite.

The group of vampires stared on in shock, and the same could be said for Yuuki whom had finally caught up to her vampire friend. With the sheer exception of Takuma, whom was shifting his gaze between the two with a knowing look in his eyes. The former knew for certain that there was now something different between the pureblood and the silver-haired guardian. For this was the first time, whereby the two of them had actually behaved polite in one another's presence without the twins being around.

However, there was no time for them to be musing over the duo's lack of hostility towards one another's presence for the sound of an approaching car, signaled to them that the infamous Ichijo Asato had finally arrived.

~ to be continued~

Date started: 12/05/09

Date completed: 14/05/09

Date edited: 14/05/09


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Woot! Ichijo Asato's here ... and will Akane be able to hold in her temper? Oh, and Kaname and Zero are actually being polite with one another?! Without the twins around too ... :P Speaking of the twins, let's hope that this time around Akira would be coming out and disrupt their parents' plans of keeping their existence a secret, and away from Ichijo Asato's knowledge :P

---

Chapter 11 - The arrival of Ichijo Asato, Part 2

"Ichiou, it's been a long time ... How have you been? " Kaname asked placidly, as Ichijo Asato stepped out from the car and onto the pavement.

"Why ... I must say I'm indeed surprise by the number of people whom had came out here to greet me ... After all, I'm only here to pay my 'lovely' grand-son a visit ... " Ichijo Asato commented as he took in the whole community of the night-class, that surrounded the area where his car was parked.

Turning towards Kaname, Ichijo Asato withheld a smirk as he addressed the former. "Kaname, it's nice of you to make an effort in coming out to greet me. Seeing that I was given the impression that you detested the idea of having me being your guardian. "

"That, I beg to differ ... I'm just worried that I might get myself spoilt rotten under your guardianship. Hence, my insistence to leave the Ichijo's estates once I reached the age of maturity ... " Kaname Kuran responded, plastering on one of his usual smile that was meant for socializing and business purposes.

Takuma tensed under the stifling aura released by his grand-father, but still he forced himself to speak up. "Grand-father, it's 'nice' to have you visit me ... but shall we moved our conversation back to the dormitory? This is hardly the place to be holding a conversation ... "

"Indeed, that I must agree ..." Ichijo Asato responded, without making too much of an effort to hide his feeling of disdain towards his own grand-son.

During the period whereby Ichijo Asato was interacting with the night-class, Zero and Yuuki merely looked on. Both of them silent, and observant of the attitude displayed by the night-class members towards the figure of Ichijo Asato. Yuuki was trying to fight against the urge to cower in front of the 'Head' of the Vampire Council, somehow there was something in the former's aura that makes her cringe with fear.

Zero, on the other hand, was silent because he had been listening closely to the conversation between Kaname Kuran and Ichijo Asato. Unlike Yuuki, he was not in the least feeling intimidated by the aura that Ichijo Asato was displaying at full. After all, despite his being an ex-human and the lowest rank within the vampires hierarchy; he would always remained a hunter. One of the utmost important lesson which he had learned from his hunter's training, was to never be intimidate by a vampire's presence.

"Keep an eye on them ... and do not let them come near us, tonight ... " Kaname murmured softly into the ears of Kiryuu Zero, as the pureblood passes by the side of the silver-haired guardian.

Zero said nothing, but nodded discreetly at the pureblood's words. Judging from the way Ichijo Asato was interacting with the pureblood, Zero was willing to bet Kaname Kuran was not exactly fond of the former's presence either.

"Come on, Yuuki ... let's go ... I'm sure that the night-class can handle themselves. We are late for our routine patrol duty. " Zero started, as he dragged Yuuki off with him while he headed his way back towards the direction of the Chairman's office.

"Huh? But Zero ... Aren't we supposed to keep an eye on them? " Yuuki protested, as she felt herself being pulled towards the direction of her adopted father's office.

"They'll be fine, they can handle themselves ... rather, I'm sure that Kuran will be able to keep them under control. Besides, my master's watching them from the dark. Ichijo Asato was no idiot, surely he could recognized the presence of a veteran hunter hidden somewhere, watching them in silence ... " Zero assured Yuuki, whom still seemed uneasy about leaving the vampires unattended.

Akane, meanwhile, decided that if Ichijo Asato was going to be spending the 'night' here at the Moon Dormitory. Then perhaps, she should just went off and joined the twins instead. Initially, she had thought that she was more than capable of reigning in her temper, but apparently not. At the rate her temper was boiling, it would only be a matter of time before she exploded.

---

Akane was half-way down the stairs, when her hunter's senses blare to life alerting her of the fact that there was an approaching group of vampires. Among them, aside from the usual group of vampires whom she knew as the members of the night-class included one unfamiliar aura. Still, Akane knew - that foreign aura belongs to Ichijo Asato.

Not wanting to let the said vampire discover her amidst the crowd, Akane wisely masked up her vampire's aura and presence while she hides herself in the shadow. Since there was no way she could have made her way out of the building without passing them by, Akane choose to stand in the shadows as she waited patiently for a chance to escape. With her aura and presence nicely masked up, the only other thing left for her to do now was to control her temper.

Seconds ticked by in silence, nobody dared to breathe a word for they were busy flickering their eyes between their pureblood leader and the most prominent figure within the council of the vampires. Then, the silence was broke by Ichijo Asato, himself.

"Such filth ... those humans are ... It's a wonder how a pureblood like yourself could survived without being tainted. Perhaps, its' just like what our ancestors had always said? The blood of a pureblood would always remained pure, sweet and free from the dangers of being tainted - despite the environment? " Ichijo Asato said, as he reached for the hand of Kaname Kuran.

Just as Ichijo Asato was about to put Kaname's hand to his lips, Ruka Souen dash out from her position in the crowd and snatched her beloved leader's hand away from Asato's grasp.

"I apologized for stepping out of line, Kaname-sama ... but I just can't ... " Ruka murmured as she placed herself in between the two vampires.

Meanwhile, Aidou Hanabusa was about to step out and make a grab for Ichijo Asato's outstretched hand, when he realized that someone else had already beaten him to the task. That someone, was none other than Akane, herself whom snapped the moment she heard those words tumbling out from the mouth of Ichijo Asato.

Takuma froze, the instant his eyes landed upon the unmistakable figure of Akane standing in front of his grand-father and appeared to be locked in a staring contest with the former.

"Pardon my rudeness, but I'm sure that you wouldn't want to get yourself associated further with more 'filthy' material ... By that, I don't mean 'filth' like the human-beings, such as myself ... I'm saying that whatever invisible substances that still lingers on the hands of Kaname-sama is more potent than the usual 'filth' that you are accustomed to deal with. " Akane said, her tone even and words ringing loud and clear for all to hear.

It took several minutes for everybody to digest the meaning behind Akane's words. When they did - Takuma's eyes widen, Akatsuki was staring at Akane with disbelief apparent. Ruka and Aidou looked incensed by Akane's choice of words, and Asato just stared. Kaname, on the other hand, felt his eyebrow twitching slightly but he did not react immediately to Akane's choice of offending terms. Shiki and Rima, on the other hand merely looked bemused by the whole situation.

For they were expecting Aidou to be the one reacting to Ichijo Asato's actions, what they failed to expect was that Akane would snapped too. Since it was not in the girl's usual behavior to be so reckless and rash, no matter how irritated the girl had been.

Ichijo Asato continued to stare wordlessly at Akane, pressing for an elaboration to her previous words and wondering what was the reason behind Akane's guts to say such offending things in public. Fancy claiming a pureblood to be 'filthy' in public, what exactly was the girl playing at?

As though sensing the older vampire's unasked question, Akane smiled sweetly. Very sweetly, in fact, and somehow oddly enough the smile send shivers down the spines of the many vampires whom had gathered around to watch the scene playing itself out like an open theatre.

"I beg your pardon ... but it seems like Kaname-sama had been in the bathroom earlier, attending to some of his 'nature calls'. However, seeing as he had been in a rush to head out front to meet you earlier... Somehow, he had forgotten to wash his hands in prior to his heading out. Therefore, I would genuinely and sincerely advise you not to lift his hands to your lips until you knew for certain that he had washed his hands ... for hygience purposes ... Certainly, you would understand where I'm coming from - right?" Akane elaborated, smiling sweetly as she did so.

Almost instantly, everyone reacted at the same time. Some wheezed and choked, whereas others turned their face away so that they could hide their grin or smile in the shadows. Akatsuki Kain was among the few whom turned his eyes away from the sight, so that he could prevent himself from laughing out loud at Akane's words. Aidou Hanabusa spluttered un-intelligently, his face reddening by each seconds that passes by. Whether was it from indignation or was it from embarrassment, nobody knows.

Ruka Souen's face paled significantly, before letting go of her beloved Kaname-sama's arm abruptly. Shiki and Rima's expression had changed from their initial bemusement to amusement. Kaname Kuran, on the other hand, really had no idea what to say in response to Akane's words. Part of him was annoyed by the excuse which Akane's had chosen for herself to get away from punishment, and yet another part of him had to credit the girl for her quick thinking.

Obviously, the girl had reacted without thinking of the consequences that might follows but her quick thinking and logic had saved her from being outright rude to the 'Head' of the Vampire Council. For the reason Akane had came up with, sounded plausible enough.

Though, it was by far a common sense actions to have wash the hands after using the toilet but sometimes people would forgot. For instances, to attend to an urgent call or an emergency situation which required immediate attention and once these things had been attended to, the notion of using the toilet in prior might have slipped their minds entirely. Although, the pureblood was not one of these people but whom was to know, except for himself and those people whom he really allowed for them to get real close to him on daily basis.

Beside Kaname, Takuma was stunned speechless. For a while, he wondered if Akane would snapped entirely and tried something foolish like assassinating his grand-father in public; or that would ended up being slapped by Kaname for her rude actions. Now though, her actions seemed justified enough though she had somewhat embarrassed Kaname in the process of 'cooking' up some plausible excuse to support her crude behavior.

"... Is that so? Then perhaps, a word of 'thanks' would be in order ..." Ichijo Asato said, his tone mildly miffed but aside from that, there was no apparent signs of his displeasure.

"You're welcome. " Akane responded, letting go of Ichijo Asato's hand as she addressed the said vampire. Still, she remained smiling as she continue to look into the eyes of the stern man. Refusing to back down without putting up a fight, for all to see.

---

Meanwhile, Ichijo Asato was bewildered. Throughout his years of observation, Kaname Kuran had not struck him to be one of those absent-minded people whom would allowed something as trivial as washing one's hands after using the washroom to slipped their minds, while being busy. Of course, he does knows a few people whom seemed to be this absent-minded before during some of his business liaising or social events that involves the humans. He had been so certain of the pureblood's good hygiene practice before, but now his confidence level wavers somewhat.

After all, Kaname's lack of reaction seemed to have agree with what the girl had been saying. Isn't that so? However, there was still another question he had in mind to the girl's previous statement. Judging from the uniform, Ichijo Asato knew enough to know that the girl whom was still standing in front of him looking him evenly in the eyes was from the day-class, and not the night class.

Furthermore, he could sensed nothing from the girl's aura. Practically, everything screamed 'human' to him when he tried to analyse the aura patterns of the girl standing in front of him. Then, does the girl had any idea of just whom she was associating herself with - at the moment? Better yet, does the girl had any idea of what the night-class members could be capable of doing to her?

Akane smirked inwardly to herself, thank goodness for her unique powers of being able to read into the mind of any individuals if she were to maintain eye-contact with the said person. Added on to her natural talent at using, modifying and creating new charms and spells - she could easily use her powers on any vampires, and without rousing any suspicion from them if she was able to make them think of her as a normal human-being instead of a vampire. Therefore, she was now extremely amused by the thoughts of Ichijo Asato, whom was also her blood-related paternal grand-father - but one that she refused to acknowledged.

Well ... if she cannot afford to be outright rude with the former, then certainly she could 'play' with him - right? Although, in the process she would be bound to get into trouble with the pureblood since all her 'mind' and 'words' games had something to do with the pureblood prince, in one way or another. Still, she was certain that whatever trouble she ended up getting into with Kaname would not be anywhere drastic enough to ensure a 'harsh' punishment like what Aidou would be subjected towards, if she had not intervened on the situation before Aidou did.

For Kaname, he had chosen not to react instantly to Akane's choice of excuse despite being annoyed was probably due to the fact that he felt no inclination to let Ichijo Asato hold on to his hands further. However, that does not means Akane would not be punished for her insolence either. Nonetheless, the punishment would not be too severe. Since he was only mildly annoyed by Akane's words, not entirely incensed by what she had been telling the others about his 'hygience' practice.

Silence reigned as Ichijo Asato and Akane continued to lock eyes with one another, neither making a move to speak. Takuma, whom had been watching by the side throughout the whole period of their eye-contact with one another, was breaking out in cold sweat now. Then the spell broke, for his grand-father had turned towards him and asked.

"Takuma ... Care to tell me why on earth is there a human girl roaming about the Moon Dormitory unescorted?" Ichiou asked, as he shifted his eyes of intent away from Akane and towards his less than satisfactory grand-son, instead.

Upon his words, many of the night-class members furrowed their brows into a frown for they had failed to understand the older vampire's words of having a human girl among them. Since, they knew that despite the fact that Akane had been in the day-class and followed the living habits of a mere human being due to special reasons - Akane's still a vampire, like the rest of them. So why is it that Ichijo Asato was referring to her as a mere human girl?

However, Takuma knew the reason. Akane must have masked up her aura of being a vampire and suppressing them down to the level of invisibility. The lack of any blaring signs of vampire's aura, combined with the fact that she was having on the uniform of a day-class students. It was no wonder that his grand-father had thought her to be a mere human-being.

"Certainly, you aren't telling me that I could be harmed by the lots of /them/ if I choose to wander about the building unescorted, by myself? That - I'm sure would never happened, for the results would not be pretty if they choose to sneak up on me from behind ... You can jolly well ask around, and see what I'm capable of doing ... Especially, Aidou ... he would know ... since he experienced them himself ... " This coming from Akane, whom chose to speak up on behalf of Takuma.

Behind her, a certain blond vampire going by the name of Aidou Hanabusa blanched visibly, knowing for a fact that a certain anti-vampire charm was still upon him and had yet to be lifted completely by the said female standing in front of him.

"Yes ... I'm pretty sure that she can handle herself, she was a hunter in training ... after all ..." Kaname spoke up, his tone placid.

"I see ... and whom gave her the permission to roam the areas of the Dormitory unattended? "

Every night-class members stared at one another in response, before shifting their eyes towards the President and Vice-President, respectively.

"It was me whom granted her the special permission to roam the building ... Is there a problem, Ichiou?" Kaname responded, his tone stern and firm.

"No, my lord ... I certainly dare not raise any objections to what you've decided ... " Ichijo Asato responded, sounding humble on the outside, but inwardly it was another matter - entirely.

"Good, and I'm certain that the journey must have been taxing for you. So why don't we adjourned ourselves to somewhere comfortable so we can continue our conversation further? After all, it simply wouldn't do to have our honored guest to be standing around the front hall - all the while, isn't that so?" Kaname suggested, as he beckoned for his friend Takuma to start leading the way.

"Akane ... if you are not up to the task of holding your tongue while in the presence of Ichiou ... I suggested that you get yourself over to the Chairman's place, immediately. Also, remember to come to me for your 'punishment' of being insolence later on ... I'll be expecting you in my room promptly at six in the evening tomorrow, following Ichiou's departure from the academy ... " Kaname Kuran said, as he passes by the side of Akane.

"Yes, Kaname-sama ... " Akane responded, obediently before making a move to leave the Moon Dormitory, entirely.

---

Akane entered through the front door of the Chairman's living quarter only to find herself coming face to face with one Yagari Touga.

"Where's the Chairman?" Akane asked, wondering why the Chairman was missing from his own living quarters and a very unwilling Yagari Touga was here in his place.

"Called away by the Hunter's association ... and asked me to take his place, temporary for a few hours ... much to my annoyance ... " Yagari Touga muttered aloud, his tone gruff as usual.

"I see ... and where's the rest? " Akane asked, despite knowing very well that Zero was upstairs with the twins.

Yagari said nothing but stared towards the direction of the stairs, since he knew for certain that Akane would be able to tell his disciple's location without having the need for him to spell it out to her, either way.

"Well then ... let the Chairman knew I'll be staying the night too as well ... and fret not, I'll not be taking advantage of your disciple as well ... Like what I've told Kaname before, I'm not into /incest/ ... " Akane said, as she started up the staircase without looking back at the veteran hunter.

The twins had sensed Akane's approaching before the girl even reached the Chairman's residential area. They both knew Akane held an immense dislike towards Ichijo Asato, and every time the name was brought up in her presence - Akane was bound to be upset. Hence, they knew their adopted sister would never be able to stay within the walls of the Moon Dormitory while that man visited. Thus, they had already warned their 'Daddy' beforehand to be expecting Akane's impromptu visit during night-time.

The door leading to the interior of the silver-haired guardian's room was pulled open by the owner, himself before Akane could even knocked and let her presence be known.

"How did you know that I'm here? " Akane opened her mouth and asked stupidly, before realizing that Zero must have sensed her coming up the stairs.

"... Never mind, forget that I'd asked ... " Akane muttered out in response, as she took in the sight of the additional mattresses that had been laid out across the remaining and available portion of the room's floor area.

The twins were kneeling down on one of the mattress and was playing a game of chess with one another. Additional pillows and blankets had been stacked up by the side of the room, atop of the recently added mattress. Seeing as this had been Zero's room prior to his enrolment into the school, majority of the former's belongings was now sitting in his dormitory building instead of this particular room. Henceforth, giving them the additional space to lay out the mattresses for their impromptu sleep-over party probably provided by the Chairman, in prior.

"I see that you're prepared for my possible arrival ... " Akane commented, as she took in the pink mattress and matching pillows as well as the blanket. Again, probably from the Chairman's collection and she was more than willing to bet that the Chairman had taken the mattress as well as the matching pillows and blanket from Yuuki's old room directly, after being informed by the twins of the possibility of her joining them for the night too.

Zero merely shrugged and said, "Well ... the Chairman prepared all the additional mattresses, pillows and blankets that's required for the 'sleep-over' ... not me, so please do not question me on the colors chosen for the bedsheets. "

"I know, and I supposed ... the twins told you about my possible arrival as well? Since you do looked like you have been expecting me to make an appearance here anytime soon ... " Akane said, sounding lethargic and lack of energy.

Zero shrugged but said nothing, and there was no need to - anyway. Since, Akane had changed the subject soon enough and started asking him on what he had been entertaining the twins with.

"Nothing much, just conversing with them ... and told them a few tales of my childhood experience during my training as a hunter ... " Zero responded, his eyes having a faraway look in them - probably thinking back on those days, himself.

"I see ... and did they tell you anything that they shouldn't have ... " Akane asked, as she glances over to the twins whom seemed determined to avoid looking her in the eyes.

Zero grimaced, before responding. "Oh ... you mean the part about how I've been the one to 'give birth' to them? "

Akane froze upon Zero's statement, before turning wide eyes towards the twins and gasped. "My goodness, tell me that the two of you didn't just slipped and let him know /that/! "

The twins blanched visibly, before Akira uttered aloud. "Akane, we didn't mean to ... it just slips! Honest! However, we didn't tell 'Father' anything though ... "

"... " Akane was speechless, before she sighed and turned back to the silver-haired hunter. "So ... what's your reaction to their accidental slip of tongue then? "

"... Honestly, I don't know what to make of it ... " Zero answered truthfully, combing his fingers through his hair as he said so.

"This whole thing had just seemed so bizarre and bewildering that I really had no idea what to think of it, anymore. Granted, if the information had been told weeks ago when the three of you had just arrived - I would have snapped, I guess ... Now though, I think I'm alright with that idea. Since, I've somewhat accepted the fact that /they/ are a product of what existed between Kuran and myself, in the future."

"Although, I'm still boggled by the idea of being the 'mother-figure' but still, I guess it's kind of expected. After all, I honestly can't see or imagine the possibility of Kuran being the one ... you know ..." Zero flushed crimson, as he stammered un-intelligently. Suddenly finding himself having trouble with getting his words out, and thus ended up falling silent with his face resembling a fully ripe tomato.

Akane smiled wryly, as she commented knowingly. "I know what you mean ... It's okay for you to be unable to say that word ... since the idea's still a little uncomfortable for you to digest, in such a short period of time. "

"Good ... so what about you? " Zero asked, changing the subject and steering the conversation away from the twins' parentage for a minute.

Akane blinked in puzzlement, as she questioned back in return. "What about me? "

"When were you adopted by ... us ...? Were the twins ... born then? " Zero amended his question, when he realized that Akane had previously mentioned that Kuran and himself had adopted her following her family's demise.

"Oh ... No, the twins' weren't even conceived when the two of you adopted me ... I was adopted during the early stages of your relationship with Kaname-sama ... so the two of you were still tentative around one another then. The twins weren't born until the later parts of your relationship with one another ... when its' more stable, and the two of you are more trusting of one another. " Akane responded, as she thought back on the days whereby both her adopted parents seemed to be overly careful of each others opinions; thoughts and feelings on every subject that was brought up to discussion.

"... In short, you get to see all of our embarrassing moments - eh? " Zero commented dryly, shooting Akane a look of mock annoyance.

Akane smirked, before responding. "Well ... that's for sure, since I was already five when I'm adopted by the two of you ... and how Kaname-sama had been jealous of your constant attention upon me ... making sure that I wasn't feeling upset by the loss of my family members and all ... "

"Okay, enough ... too much details ... " Zero cut in before Akane could continue quoting all those memorable events off her fantastic memory.

"... So ... how did you addressed Kuran and myself, back in your own time? "

"Hm..m... I called you 'Dad' most of the time, and him 'Kaname-sama' all the time ... Occasionally, I would call him 'Father' but only in front of public. Of course, while I'm here ... I called you by your name, cause' its' simply too weird to be calling you anything otherwise. "

"Point taken ... " Zero commented, before shifting his attention towards the twins as he observed his future sons interact with one another in silence.

Akane, meanwhile, was glad to be left alone to her thoughts and thus had moved herself towards the direction of an isolated corner in the room and hug a random pillow close to herself. For she needed some time to herself, and sort out her current emotions that was in a mess and hay-wired condition.

---

On the other end of the academy, a certain pureblood was lying down on his couch in the privacy of his room when he sensed the unmistakable presence of his childhood friend, Takuma Ichijo loitering outside his door.

"Takuma ... Is anything the matter? "

"Huh? ... No ... not exactly ... "

"Really? Then why are you loitering outside my room, and seemed to be hesitating about something? Please do not tell me, you are curious about my hygience practice too ... I had had enough of that from Aidou and Ruka, already ..."

"No, I'm not here to ask you about /that/ since I know that's just something which Akane had made up to fool my grand-father into giving up the idea of 'molesting' your hand ... " Takuma responded, a wry grin tugging at the corner of his lips as the memory from before replayed itself in his mind.

"... If so, then why are you loitering outside my door ... Are you going to continue pacing out there, if I hadn't called you in, myself? "

"..."

Silence met his ears, and Kaname sighed inwardly. "Are you really that concerned about Akane's welfare? If so, you can jolly well proceed over to the Chairman's place and check things out for yourself ... Certainly, I won't be offended by you showing your concern for my /future daughter/ ... "

" ... I understand, Kaname ... In that case, I'll take my leave now ... if you don't mind ... " Takuma responded, as he made a move to leave his friend's room.

Halfway across the aisle, Takuma was stopped by his friend's words. "Takuma ... do check on the twins' as well ... "

Takuma nodded, before leaving Kaname's room - altogether and leaving the pureblood behind alone to his thoughts.

Kiryuu Zero had been on the verge of dozing off himself, when he heard the Chairman whom had just gotten back from the hunter's association calling out for his attention in an annoying sing-song manner.

"What is it?! " He let out a half-growl as he opened up the door to his room and stepped out into the corridor-way. The twins and Akane were already asleep, and he had no intention for them to be rouse by the Chairman's annoying high-pitched voice.

"Why?! How could you be so heartless to me when I've just gotten back from the hunter's association, speaking to them on your behalf ... Papa's so heart-broken ... " The Chairman pretended to weep and sobbed, pitifully.

Zero felt his eyebrow twitching involuntarily, before gritting out in sheer frustration. "Would you please keep it down?! They are sleeping, and I do not want to wake them. Besides, you aren't my father, just my legal guardian ... "

Zero would have continue to rant at the Chairman, if he had not finally taken a notice of the blond green-eyed Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory standing behind his adopted father, quietly and waiting for his acknowledgment.

"Ichijo ... " Zero greeted, his tone low and devoid of emotions.

"Kiryuu-kun, can I have a moment with you? " Takuma Ichijo started, his tone inquiring and polite, as usual.

Zero nodded wordlessly, as he responded. "Sure ... is the 'study' of the Chairman's alright with you? "

Takuma shrugged, not really caring about where the conversation will be taking place. For he just wanted to talk with the silver-haired guardian, and perhaps try to understand the former better. The idea had been on his mind for quite some time now, ever since Akane had told him of his relations to her family. However, the notion had been put temporarily on hold when he knew of his grand-father's impending arrival.

Although, his grand-father's still on campus but at least nothing drastical had happened yet. So that gives him some time to himself, and since he had been granted permission by Kaname to check on Akane and the twins' welfare. Seeing as they were all sleeping right now, certainly the pureblood would not fault him for attempting to communicate with the silver-haired guardian, right? Besides, Kaname did not exactly banned him from speaking to Kiryuu - only told him to prevent anyone from killing the said guardian, isn't that so?

~ to be continued~

Date started: 15/05/09

Date completed: 16/05/09

Date edited: 16/05/09


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Okay, so Zero's slowly coming to terms of Kaname and his intertwine future ... and Akane's powers of being able to read minds ... was not exactly useful in battles, except that she could know what the enemy was planning on doing in advance ... that explains why she's so skilled in the fields of charms and spells that would help her fight, when the need arises. And Takuma's finally starting to make a move in getting friendly with Zero ...

---

Chapter 12 - Getting Friendly, Part 1

"So ... what's it that you want to talk to me about? " Zero started, as soon as the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory entered the Chairman's study after him.

Takuma Ichijo leaned against the closed door of the Chairman's study casually, as he responded. "Actually ... its' nothing much, I'm just wondering how's Akane doing ... She kind of had a run-in with my grand-father, prior to her coming over ... and Kaname told me to check on the twins as well ... "

"I see ... they're fine. Sleeping soundly now ... " Zero responded, matter-of-factly.

"I know ... I'm far more interested in Akane's mood ... She didn't exactly like the way my grand-father was behaving with Kaname earlier on ... "

"... You mean before she came over here? " Zero queried, looking over at the blond vampire for an answer.

Takuma nodded to the silver-haired guardian's question, before adding as an after-thought. "Yes, and she kind of 'snapped' too ... "

"She did? " Zero echoed, sounding genuinely surprised by the green-eyed blond vampire's words.

"Yes, she did ... but fret not. What she did was nothing as compared to what Aidou could be capable of doing, if Akane had not put herself in that position before Aidou could even react. Besides, her quick thinking and logic had somehow managed to save her from the other end of my grand-father's wrath. Thus ending up only annoying my grand-father, instead of pissing him off." Takuma hurried to set things straight, not giving the fellow guardian a chance to start working himself into a frenzy state of worries.

"What did she do then? " Zero asked, frowning.

"Grab my grand-father's hand tightly in public ... right after Ruka had intervened and forcefully removed Kaname's hand from my grand-father and by placing herself in between Kaname and my grand-father ... "

"What?! She held the hand of your grand-father in a tight and death grip?!" Zero repeated, incredulously.

"Yes, apparently so ... but that's fine too ... because the excuse which she came up with had somehow managed to fool my grand-father into believing that her actions were justified for a good reason ... " Takuma responded, wryly as he allowed a smile to tug at the corner of his lips upon the sheer memory of the event.

"... What's her excuse then?" Zero asked, somehow his curiosity was piqued by the tone that the fellow vampire was using while explaining Akane's actions to him.

"She claimed that she was 'saving' my grand-father from the potential of being contaminated by the 'bacteria' that lingers on Kaname's hands ... seeing as Kaname had forgotten to wash his hands in prior of heading out front to meet him, personally - after using the bathroom to answer some 'nature calls'. " Takuma replied, openly grinning now.

There was a pregnant pause of silence as Zero digested the former's words, before his eyes widen in alarm upon realizing that Akane had justified her crude behavior by openly insulting Kaname Kuran, in public.

"... So what's Kuran planning to do with her now? " Zero asked, sounding worried about what kind of punishment would awaited Akane later, after the departure of Ichijo Asato.

"Nothing drastic ... since he wasn't really angry, at least ... he doesn't looked that way to me ... Therefore, I don't think there will be any slapping involved, and I don't think he'll be asking Akane to hold buckets of water while standing out in the public for all to see like what he had made Aidou and Akatsuki do - several weeks in prior as well ... so ... I really had no idea. However, I'm certain that punishments would be given to Akane in response to her open insolence at a later stage of time. " Takuma responded, assuring the silver-haired guardian not to worry nor dwell too much into the situation.

"How's the twins then ...? Were they up to any mischief this evening? " Takuma asked, steering the topic of conversation away from Akane and onto something else.

The last thing he needs right now, was to have another person suspecting the reason behind his concerns for the sandy-brown haired vampire. It was bad enough with Kaname suspecting that he was harboring some sorts of special feelings for Akane, and he certainly does not required that from Kiryuu Zero too.

"... They have been cooperative enough, this evening ... probably because my master was around and thus, they dared not create any troubles unnecessarily. " Zero replied, trying to keep the drowsiness away from his voice but was not exactly successful in his attempt, as he found himself yawning towards the end of his words.

Realizing that Zero was probably tired out by trying to keep up with the twins antics, and probably from his duty as the school guardian as well. Takuma decided that, perhaps it was time for him to leave for the moment and continued his conversation with the fellow guardian on another day.

"Right, I guess I'll see you tomorrow evening and chat with you another day. For now, I shall leave so that you could sleep on in peace ... " Takuma said, as he excused himself from the company of the silver-haired hunter politely.

Zero said nothing in response, but turned promptly on his heels to exit from the Chairman's study and headed back up the stairs so that he could catch some winks prior to the twins awakening. Takuma, meanwhile, nodded to the Chairman whom was now dressed for bed politely before leaving the former's residential area, and headed back towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory.

---

When Zero woke the next morning, Akane was already up and about. The twins though, continued to sleep on. Zero blinked blearily to get the sleep away from his eyes, as he observed in silence as Akane folded away the used blanket and settled it nicely aside.

"Good morning, Zero ... " Akane's voice startled him out from his silent observation, as mumbled a soft morning greeting to the girl by instincts.

Akane smiled and said, "Zero ... You are going to school today, right? If so, help me collect the day's assignments - will you? I'll need to be here, as someone will be required to stay with the twins. I'm not going to have them waking and creating havoc for the Chairman to handle. Besides, I have a feeling that /Ichijo Asato/ was going to be brought on a campus tour today, prior to his leaving by the Chairman - himself. I really don't feel up to the task of interacting with him today ... and I certainly, do not want to risk getting into trouble with Kaname-sama, again. "

"... Alright then, but would you perhaps like to tell me the reason behind your immense dislike of Ichijo Asato? " Zero asked, he was curious to know the reason behind Akane's dislike for the said vampire. For Akane seemed to be harboring such feelings towards the former on a more personal scale.

" ... Can we talked about this issue, another day? I don't feel like revealing them to anyone now ... " Akane said, as she tried to avert touching on this particular issue.

Realizing that Akane probably would not be informing him of the reason anytime soon, Zero shrugged and gave in to Akane's response easily. For there was no need for him to be forcing the answer out of the said girl anyway, since he figured that Akane would probably let him know of the reason, when she deemed it necessary for him to know.

With that notion in mind, Zero started towards the direction of the bathroom to get himself ready for the day. Akane, meanwhile, seized the opportunity to make the bed for Zero as well. Although, she knew the former would preferred doing it himself but at this point of time, she could hardly cared. For she desperately felt the need to busy herself with something, lest she caved in to the desire to hurt something, or kill a particular someone.

"Akane ... where's Daddy? " The sound of Akira's voice draws the girl away from her thoughts.

"Bathroom ... why are you up so early, today? " Akane asked, surprised to find the boy up and about before noon.

Akira shrugged, before rubbing the sleep away from his eyes and said. "I'm hungry ... I want to have omelette rice ... "

"Aa ... I see, but Daddy need to go to school today ... Why don't we get him to cook 'Omelette Rice' for us later on in the day, around evening perhaps? In the meantime, we can call for some delivery ... Is that alright with you? " Akane suggested, knowing that there would be no time for Zero to make them 'breakfast' before departing for school.

"Okay then ... " Akira said through a yawn, he looked so adorable that Akane felt a sudden urge to smother the boy in a hug.

Akira blinked in surprise when he felt himself being pulled in for a big 'bear' hug by his elder sister, but since he was still half-awake and Akane did not exactly hugged him tight enough to render any form of suffocation. Akira did not even bother to protest against the girl's smothering actions, instead he simply remained where he stood and allowed the girl to do as she pleased to him.

That was exactly the sight which Zero had found himself looking at, upon his return from the bathroom. Akira's hair was messy from Akane's ruffling and smothering, cheeks redden slightly from Akane's pinching and the blue and white strips pyjamas top rumpled from his earlier sleep.

"Akane, do me a favor and let Akira off the hook ... will you? His poor cheeks is going to be swollen by the time you are done manhandling him ... " Zero broke in, saving his youngest from being further tarnished by Akane's smothering actions.

"... Sorry, can't help it ... because he's so adorable after just waking up from his sleep ... " Akane responded, cheekily as she finally released her youngest siblings from her grasp.

Akira perked up upon the sound of his favorite parent's voice, and immediately attached himself to the leg of Zero again. "Daddy! "

Zero smiled as he bend down to give a gentle pat on the boy's head, "Morning ... Akira ..."

Akira beamed up at him, and asked. "Can we please have omelette rice for dinner, tonight?! "

Zero blinked, flickering his eyes back to Akane in surprise and asked. "Omelette Rice? "

Akane nodded, and elaborated. "Yes, Omelette Rice ... Akira had specifically requested that he wanted to have /Your Omelette Rice/ tonight for dinner ... "

"Oh ... " Zero sounded genuinely surprised by the request, since he had thought that the boy would be requesting something extravagant, considering how rich Kaname Kuran was.

"Can we? " Akira's eager voice startled Zero out from his reverie, again.

The silver-haired hunter smiled, as he nodded to his son's request and said. "Yes, we can have that for dinner tonight ... "

Akira let out a joyful sound of cheer, before bouncing and skipping off to the bathroom to get himself ready for the day. Subaru, on the other hand, continued to sleep on like a 'log' - totally undisturbed by his twin sibling's loud and excited cheer of joy.

---

Meanwhile, Takuma Ichijo was breaking out in cold sweat now. His grand-father, had somehow noticed his absence from the dormitory sometime late last night, and was now questioning him on his whereabouts.

"I was out doing something for Kaname-sama ... " Takuma responded, somewhat hesitantly. Since there was no way he could have reveal the truth to his grand-father, and lying was obviously not an option either. Takuma had to settle for telling the older and wiser vampire, half-truths instead.

Ichijo Asato arched his eyebrow up in skepticism as he prompted his grand-son, "Really? He send you out to do something over at the Chairman's place in the middle of the night? "

Upon the said vampire's words, Takuma froze. For he had no idea that his grand-father had seen him on the move, at all. Fear gripped his heart as he thought for a moment, that his grand-father had already found out about the twins' existence or Akane's real identity.

"Ichiou ... Is there a problem with me sending out Takuma in the middle of the night, to consult the Chairman on something which is unsuitable for the general public to find out? Besides, the Chairman had been out to the hunter's association sometime earlier and was only scheduled to arrive back at the academy, a little before mid-night struck. So now, is there really a problem for me to send Takuma out to visit the Chairman, at mid-night?"

Kaname Kuran spoke up elegantly from behind, saving his childhood friend from the elder vampire's questioning session. Ichijo Asato turned towards his direction regally, and bowed to his presence. His friend, meanwhile, shot him a grateful look discreetly while heaving a sigh of relief. Nodding towards both vampires, Kaname Kuran addressed his friend - this time around.

"Takuma, sorry to bother you this early in the morning but it seems like we are having quite a bit of plumbing and piping problem in our kitchens ... would you mind heading over to the Chairman, and get him to engage some skillful technicians in such fields to check things out? Preferably, making the appointment to be in the evening so as to save the poor technicians from interacting much with the night-class members. "

Grateful to have an excuse to get himself away from his grand-father for the time-being, Takuma seized the chance and opportunity to flee from the walls of the Moon Dormitory as though it was his only chance at survival. Choosing to ignore the fact that the sun-light out there would probably make him feel somewhat uncomfortable, Takuma hurried past his grand-father and his pureblood friend as he walked briskly towards the direction of the door.

Akane had been in the midst of preparing breakfast when Takuma barged into the Chairman's living quarters, unannounced. Unsurprisingly, that ended up with the veteran hunter reacting promptly to his hunter's sense and was now holding the former at gun-point.

"I apologized for the lack of warning in advance, but Yagari-san ... I would appreciate very much if you could lowered your gun for the moment. " Takuma Ichijo said, as he directed his words at the veteran hunter.

"Oh ... Takuma-kun ... what brings you over this early in time? Zero's still in school, you know? " The Chairman broke in, interrupting the tense atmosphere as he forcefully made Yagari lowered the gun that had been fixed upon the figure of the blond vampire, previously.

"Ah ... I know ... I'm not here to see Kiryuu ... I'm here to check on the twins ... " Takuma said, hesitantly and uncomfortably as he fidgeted under the curious gazes of the room's occupants.

"... Liar ... Just admit it that you are fleeing from your grand-father, because you had no idea how to "handle" his questionings ... " This coming from Akane, whom had figured out his thoughts with just a mere look towards his direction.

"..." Takuma sighed inwardly, seems like nothing about him would be able to escape from his future cousin's keen observations.

"Akane, I'm not going to start if I were you ... Since, you escaped from his presence as well ... Like me, you're just as guilty ... " Takuma shot back at the girl, in defense.

"... Fine, we were both cowards ... Good enough for you? Anyway, stop standing there and staring at the pancakes like an idiot - will you? If you want to join us for breakfast, then please do take a seat at the table ... or do you need me to escort you to the table, myself? " Akane retorted, as she bring out another new stack of freshly made pancakes from the kitchen and sets them down on the dining table.

"Come on, Uncle Takuma ... Don't just stand around and watched, do join us! " Akira Kuran said as he started to drag the stupefied vampire towards the direction of the dining table. The boy had just came out from the washroom after washing his hands, and was ready to attack his own portion of breakfast.

"Oh ... thanks ..." Takuma murmured, automatically as a new plate of pancakes was being placed in front of him for his consumption by the sandy-brown haired girl.

"... You're welcome ... " Akane responded, before settling down for breakfast herself but not before she poured the younger twin a glass of milk to go along with the pancakes.

"Where's Subaru? " Takuma found himself asking, when he noticed the other boy's absence.

"Sleeping ... and probably would not be waking until noon ... "

"Then why's Akira ... "

"... No idea, go ask him yourself ... he's next to you, isn't he? "

"Simple, I wake early because I'm hungry ... for food ... I meant ..." The boy added, when he noticed the guarded look on the veteran hunter's face as the former turned wary eyes upon him.

"While we're on the subject of food ... How often does the blood lust occurs for the two of you? " Takuma asked, and blanched visibly when he realized that all eyes were now centered upon him.

"... Takuma, sometimes ... curiosity kills the cat ... but well, I don't think Akira would mind revealing, would he? "

Akira Kuran blinked, before responding with a nonchalant expression on his features. "Seldom, unless we had been injured ... or something happened that triggered our natural desires for blood ... Otherwise, the thirst for blood would never occurred. After all, pureblood can controlled their lust for blood better ... at least, I think that's what Father had told us, when we were younger ... "

"What about the time when they've just been born? " Takuma asked, knowing for a fact that when a vampire child had just being birth - they would need to have their first taste of blood.

"... That I have no idea, ask Akane ... She was there ... " Akira responded, as he threw the question that Takuma had asked, towards his elder sibling.

"I think Zero fed them his blood ... or was it Kaname's blood? I have no idea ... but it was a one-time thing. After that, the twins were given fresh milk on daily basis, made from milk formula ... with blood tablets mixed and present in th milk bottles. " Akane responded, before throwing her cousin a look of annoyance for his stupid questions that was being asked.

Takuma was about to ask another question, when Akane cuts in forcefully and said. "Takuma, enough ... I'm going to tell Kaname about what you've been poking your nose into, if I hear another stupid and pointless question from you ... If you are indeed so curious about how the life of being a vampire baby or child is like, then perhaps you can go and try to make one for yourself? I certainly would not mind to have your eldest child being born ... fifty years in advance ... "

With that, Takuma fell silent. It was obvious that his cousin was starting to get irritated by his questions, for it was starting to get a little 'private'. That much, he agreed. He doubt, Kaname would appreciate having him knowing all these details in advance, or before the pureblood himself had been informed of such information.

"Alright, one last question ... Who's my future wife? " Takuma asked, and Akane nearly choked on her sip of orange juice.

" ... Please tell me that you are not really considering the idea of making babies ... fifty years in advance ... I was joking earlier, when I told you to experiment on the concept ... "

Takuma threw his cousin a look of amusement, before responding. "No ... I'm just curious about my future's spouse identity ... Do I know her? "

"... Yes and No ... "

"What kind of response was that?! "

"Meaning ... You've seen her, but you don't know her - yet. At least, you don't know her on a personal basis ... " Akane elaborated on her response, inwardly hoping that Takuma would not be pressing her for his future spouse' name - just yet.

"In other words, I know her at least by her name - by this point of time? "

"You can say so ... but I'm not going to reveal anything else to you ... Good luck in searching for that particular woman in your life ... " Akane responded, throwing her cousin a sly look before disappearing into the kitchen and hide herself away from the prying eyes of the said vampire.

---

Once Akane had safely retreated to the kitchen, the girl let out a sigh audibly. It seems like she had once again, changes things in the past. Though, such changes were insignificant in life but she knew they would still have some sort of impact on the future where she had came from. For a while, she wondered about the possibility of having her parents' coming back to life in the future - before she shakes her head to rid herself of such wishful thoughts.

That would never happened, although the official records had stated that her family had been killed and slaughtered brutally by the hunter's association but she had a feeling that things were not as simple as the paper documents had made it out to be. She was never present at the site where her parents' had been killed, because Zero had picked her up from her family associate's house as soon as information of her parents' demise had been leaked to the public.

For a period of time, she had actually suspected that her parents' death had something to do with the 'Fujiwara' clan but she knew now that that would never have happen. The 'Fujiwara' had disowned her mother, as soon as they discovered her mother had associated herself with a vampire.

By disowning her mother, the 'Fujiwara' was making it clear to both the hunter's association and the Vampire Council that their relations had been cut off from one another, entirely. Therefore, protecting their own 'backsides' in the process as the sayings goes. In other words, it was indicating to both parties that the clan would not be held responsible for any possible harm that might happened to the said person, in the near future.

The position of the 'Fujiwara' clan in their society had always been rather peculiar. They were unique in a sense, never really belonged to the circle of the hunters' nor were they considered to be part of the vampires' socializing group. The vampires' heritage that was hidden in them makes it hard for the hunters' to fully accept them as one of their own, and the same to go for the vampires'. The clan's ability to use hunters' charms and skills makes it generally hard for the vampires' to trust them, whole-heartedly as well.

Therefore, their open declaration of disowning her mother whom was a certified and a qualified hunter in the fields of vampires' hunting when she had gotten herself involved with a fellow vampire from a noble blood-line, was important. To the hunters' association, the 'Fujiwara' clan was making it perfectly clear that they would never sided with the vampires of that particular blood-line if the members of that noble lineage had done anything bad to the hunters'.

At the same time, it also let the members of the Vampire Council to be aware that whatever actions which the hunter's association had choose to take in response to the said situation would have absolutely nothing to do with them. Thus, ensuring that their 'backsides' would be fully covered and that the Vampire Council would never have a chance to pursuit them if anything untoward were to really happen with the members of that particular lineage.

Despite the fact that both the Hunters' Association and the Vampires' Council had never been on good terms with one another, but ironically both parties would not be able to 'survive' in the society without the other. The association was in charge of eliminating any vampires, usually 'Level E' and occasionally, others as well that would be considered as a danger to the general public.

The Vampire Council, on the other hand, would be in charge of keeping track of the numbers of 'Level D' and analyzed the possibility of such vampires falling to the 'end'. Once these vampires had fallen or had shown signs of 'falling', the hunters would be called in to 'dispose' of them.

That was a practice that had yet to be started and carried out at this point of time, but would eventually take place. For that was one of the pacifism campaign started out and put into execution by Kaname Kuran, himself. Of course, that would not have been made possible if it were not for the fact that Zero Kiryuu, the favorite student of the veteran hunter - Yagari Touga had supported the idea, whole-heartedly. Topping it off, the grand-son of the previous 'Head' of the Vampire Council - Takuma Ichijo had expressed his agreement to the idea as well. The suggestion was accepted and gradually put on a probation period of ten years.

During the ten years of probation period, Zero Kiryuu had personally made an effort in attending each and every meetings that was held between the association and the council. For the first few years, Kaname Kuran had attended those meetings as well just to show everyone whom were present at the meeting that Zero's words carried as much authority, as his own. For the silver-haired hunter was one of the few people whom he was willing to trust, whole-heartedly in the world and without reserves too.

Anyway, with that kind of pacifism campaign and scheme going on ... Akane simply cannot think of any possible reason for the hunter's association to be wanting to kill off her family, or rather her parents' - just like that! So the question now remained whom was the culprit that was responsible for her family's demise?

Seeing as Akane had no idea herself, how could she possibly attempted to do something that could have prevented the whole situation from happening altogether? Well, she could have tried by telling and relaying as much information which she does have on hand in relations to the event leading up to her family's demise to both Takuma and Zero, hoping that there might be some chance of preventing her family's tragedy from happening. Still, she doubted it would have change anything.

For a couple of reasons, actually. First and foremost, Takuma and Zero were both on good terms with her family before the tragedy event took place. Therefore, when the situation had first occurred - they had both tried their best to sort things out, hoping that the culprit whom was hiding behind the scene and manipulating the situation could be found. However, nothing from their investigations had turned up useful.

Secondly, the decision to 'attack' her family must have been a secret operation for she knew - if not, Zero would have known and put a stop to it, before it could even be carried out. Seeing as Zero had been on the hunters' association's committee during the period of time, when the tragical event took place.

Letting out another sigh in response to all the thoughts floating about in her mind, Akane forced herself to come back into the land of 'living' and started to clean up the dishes that had been abandoned in the kitchen's sink instead. No point dwelling on something that had yet to occur, or was bound to happen in another time.

---

If Zero had been surprised by the appearance of Takuma Ichijo joining them for dinner upon his return from the school, he did not showed it. In fact, Zero had basically sucked it up and get down to work in the kitchen. He had, after all, promised the twins to cook them his specialty - 'Omelette Rice' upon his return from the day's classes.

For Takuma Ichijo, the former had never planned on staying around for dinner. After all, his initial motive for coming over to hang out with the twins and Akane was to hide himself away from his grand-father's keen observant eyes. The fact that he get a chance to taste the silver-haired hunter's cooking before his pureblood friend does, was just a bonus. Although, he had a feeling that his friend would be somewhat irritated and irked by the fact if the information reaches the pureblood, later on in time.

"Alright, here you go ... " Zero said as he placed last plate of the 'Omelette Rice' in front of Akira, whom had 'requested' for a second serving.

"Yummy! Thanks Daddy! " Akira beamed up at his younger parent, as he dug into his second serving of the day's dinner.

Subaru, meanwhile, whom had only just woken a couple of hours before rolled his eyes at his brother's enthusiasm. Not that he had a problem with having 'Omelette Rice' for a meal, since that was one of his Daddy's specialty dish. In fact, it was the first home-cooked dish that his Dad had made for his Father; when the duo had first started to develop their feelings for one another. At least, that was what his Dad had told him during one of those reminiscence moments which the silver-haired hunter had a tendency to slip into.

Still, Subaru would have preferred having something lighter, such as 'Chicken Porridge' to start off the day instead of the 'Omelette Rice' which his younger sibling had taken an immense liking towards; and would never mind to be served with the said dish for each and every meal that was to be taken in a day.

"Subaru, what's wrong? Is the food not to your liking? " Zero had asked, upon noticing the lack of reaction from his elder son.

The silver-haired child shakes his head, as he responded. "No ... its' not that ... It's just that I wasn't that hungry ... Unlike Akira, I've only just waken up from my sleep. I would have preferred something like 'porridge' that was more common in the breakfast menu, rather than 'Omelette Rice'. Since, I believed that particular dish to be served mostly during lunch or dinner ... "

"Oh ... I guess, it kind of slipped from my mind ... Well, anyway ... It's alright, I think Akane did saved you some of the pancakes from earlier right? Go and have those instead, we'll keep your untouched portion of the 'Omelette Rice' for later. " Zero responded, looking somewhat disturbed by the notion that he had failed to take into consideration of Subaru's preferences menu and instead, had merely just gone along with Akira's suggestions.

"... Sorry Dad ... I didn't mean to disappoint you by not eating what you've cooked specially for us ... but I really can't stomach that much food ... right now but I promised that I'll finished it later, probably during lunch hours ... if you would packed it in a lunch box and let me bring it back to the Moon Dormitory ... tonight. " Subaru said, upon sighting the look of disappointment on his younger parent's features.

"Yeah, I can get the maids to heat it up for Subaru later ... and I'm sure that it would not be a bother, seeing as vampires like ourselves kept a nocturnal schedule. " Takuma interjected, upon sighting the look of 'guilt' on the younger boy's features and the look of hesitance on the guardian's face.

"Alright then ... " Zero finally relented, as he sighed and gave the guilty boy a gentle pat on the head. "It's alright, Subaru ... Daddy's not mad at you ... I'm just annoyed at myself for not consulting your opinions on the menu, and instead just went along with Akira's request - assuming that you would be fine with it. Nonetheless, Daddy promised you now that next time, I'll keep it in mind to consult you on your opinions for the menu before proceeding on with it, okay?! "

Subaru nodded, the guilt slightly lessen but still appeared to be in turmoil for causing such inconvenience for his Daddy. To which, Zero sighed inwardly as he pulled the boy in for a hug of comfort and whispered soothing words of assurance.

Akane, whom had been observing the sight for quite some time now sighed inwardly at the scene enfolding in front of her very eyes. Sometimes, she really had no idea what to say in response to Subaru's characteristics and personality. At times, the boy was so confident of his every words and actions; mimicking his 'Father' to the extent of every details. Yet, at other times, the boy was so insecure and hesitant that he reminded her painfully of his other parent, Kiryuu Zero.

Akira, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Most of the time, the younger boy would purposely goes around acting like a clown serving the purpose to cheer up each and everyone in the household. At other times, the boy was just behaving in a 'happy-go-lucky' attitude that reminded her of her own cousin, Takuma Ichijo. Occasionally, the boy would reminded her of Shiki Senri with the 'couldn't care less' attitude; and sometimes the boy's rare display of empathy would remind her of Kiryuu Zero. However, when the boy was enraged and pissed off beyond reasoning - he would reminded her painfully of the pureblood prince, Kaname Kuran.

'Bi-polar' - that was the word Akane would used to describe the twins, whenever someone asked her about them. How the twins had managed to develop a personality and characteristics that was completely opposite to one another, Akane had no idea of knowing. It might be the due to the environment factors, or it could be something else. All in all, the twins could be both similar and yet different at most, if not all of the time.

A quick glance at the clock in the Chairman's dining room, told Akane that it was now promptly six on the dot and that Kaname was expecting her to report to his 'study' for her punishment of insolence - anytime now. Dragging off an unwilling Takuma Ichijo in the process, Akane excused themselves from the group's companionship and said.

"We've got to leave now ... or Kaname-sama would have our heads on a silver platter. We are late for a meeting, with him - already. Boys' please do help Zero with the cleaning up process, and Zero ... do send the twins back later, personally. Lest, they wandered off by themselves again. Well, maybe not Subaru ... but I know Akira had a tendency to 'explore' the school unescorted. " Akane said, without turning to look at the trio.

To which, Akira pouted unhappily at Akane's words when he realized that both the eyes of his twin sibling and his younger parent, were now centered on him.

~ to be continued~

Date started: 16/05/09

Date completed: 19/05/09

Date edited: 19/05/09


	13. Chapter 13

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Woot! Sixty reviews already, whom would have thought ... Anyway, in this chapter ... Takuma's plan to get closer to Zero continues on ... and add in a certain blue-eyed blond vampire who's up to stir up troubles ... Things are bound to get interesting ... Moreover, Kaname snapped and finally made a move upon Zero, what's going to happen?

---

Chapter 13 - Getting Friendly, Part 2

"Excuse me, but I just want to double-check ... Did I just hear you telling me that I'll have to wash a week's worth of toilets for the Moon Dormitory as a form of punishment in response to my previous open insolence?! " Akane repeated, sounding incredulous as she stared into the face of Kaname Kuran.

The pureblood president of the Moon Dormitory nodded in response to the girl's words. Despite his lack of offence towards what Akane had said earlier, it remained the fact that the girl had openly insulted him, a pureblood in public. That alone, was considered an act of disrespect and he could not allowed to let Akane off without assigning her with some form of punishment duty.

His usual punishments of slapping would not be applicable under this circumstances, and neither does the act of humiliating the girl publicly by making her carry buckets of water while standing under the hot scorching sun applies. Therefore, he figured that since the girl had openly 'insulted' his integrity by claiming that he had a questionable hygiene practices. Then, the girl was more than welcome to clean up all the available bathrooms situated within the whole dormitory building without enlisting the help of the maids.

Meanwhile, Akane was floored. What is it about Kaname Kuran and his tendency to make her clean up the bathrooms as a form of punishment, every time she did something that displeased him?

"... Are you sure you are not the Kaname Kuran from /MY/ time?! " Akane asked, unable to hold back her stunned exclamation.

Upon her inquiry, Kaname Kuran arched an eyebrow up in response as he said. "I'm certain that my soul had not been switched with my future self ... Why? Is there a problem with the punishment that was being assigned to you? "

Akane shakes her head in disbelief, before responding. "No, there's no problem at all! No offenses to you, but I'm curious ... Am I the only one whom was subjected to this particular form of 'punishments' or had there being others before? "

"No, you're the first and probably the only one to get away from me after doing something that challenged my integrity without being slapped or publicly humiliated by me. "

"... Right, then I guess its' just a coincidence ... or that's simply a form of punishment which you reserved it for me ... " Akane muttered under her breath, still finding the whole situation a little hard to digest.

"Why? Has it ever happened before? "

"I'm certain that it happened every so frequently ... or rather, happened all the time and especially during the summer holidays! "

For a while, Takuma was puzzled until the realization that Akane and Kaname was probably talking about the future, dawns in on him.

"You mean, you've washed the toilets before? " Takuma frowned, a little disturbed by the idea.

"Well ... yeah, I did ... After all, Kaname-sama cannot slapped me without Zero jumping in between us ... Trying to humiliate me in public would not work as well, since that was equivalent to humiliating himself ... Seeing that, he's responsible for my behavior as he happened to be one of my adopted parent. " Akane explained for the benefits of her confused cousin.

"... Akane, that's a little too much information being revealed ... Don't you think? " Kaname Kuran reminded, not feeling too good about the way Akane was basically filling in his best friend on the prospect of his future self's private affairs.

"Okay ... okay ... I get it, there's no need for you to glare ... I'll be off now then, and speaking of which when do you intend for me to start serving my punishment period? "

"... As soon as possible ...but let me know beforehand ... so I can make arrangements to inform every members of the night-class." Kaname Kuran said, before Akane could disappeared from his sighting range.

"Yes, Sir! " Akane responded, giving the younger pureblood a mock-salute before skipping down the hall-way heading for her assigned room, cheerfully.

---

Time really flies when one was being kept busy, and soon a week had flown by since the impromptu visit made by Ichijo Asato. Akane had went down to start on that particular punishment assignment as soon as she had slept enough, and today would be the last day of her 'cleaning service' and she hoped to finish cleaning the last few private bathrooms that belongs to the nobles of Kaname Kuran's inner socializing circle of friends.

She had been on her way to clean the bathroom that was shared between Ruka Souen and Rima Touya, when she noticed Zero Kiryuu heading towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory with a certain green-eyed blond vampire, following him in his wake.

"Zero? What are you doing here? The twins' was out with Shiki ... " Akane asked, as her eyes flickered between her cousin and her grand-uncle in bewilderment.

"I know ... I've heard ... you've been asked to clean each and every bathrooms in the dormitory building? " Zero asked, mentally noting down the pail and several brushes meant for cleaning use as he addressed Akane.

"Well ... yeah, but today's the last day ... so I'm actually eager to start and get things over with, this time around." Akane responded, with an easy shrug of her shoulders.

"... I see ... then perhaps, I should help too?"

"Huh? No ... its' fine, I can handle it myself ... "

"No, let me help ... I want to ... " Zero started, his tone firm despite Akane's words of protest.

"... I think only Ruka and Aidou's room were left ... Akane had finished cleaning the bathroom in my room, this morning ... " Takuma Ichijo started, before adding. "I know, Akane could clean the bathroom in Ruka's room and we could helped her with the bathroom in Aidou's room. I'm certain that Aidou and Akatsuki won't mind, seeing as they both knew you ... "

Akane's eyes widen at her over-enthusiastic cousin's suggestion, somehow she had a very bad feeling about getting Zero involved in her 'punishment' but before she could spoke up, Takuma had already collected another set of cleaning equipments from the shed and was now urging the silver-haired hunter towards the direction of the room that was shared between Akatsuki and Aidou.

"... Let's hope nothing dreadful will happen ... today ... " Akane murmured to herself, and made a move towards the room of Ruka Souen and Rima Touya, trying her hardest to ignore the strange nagging feeling that was constantly tugging at her subconsciousness and was doing a very good job at distracting her.

---

"What's he doing here?! " Aidou Hanabusa jabbed a finger towards Zero's direction, upon the sight of the said guardian.

"Aidou ... It's rude to point fingers at someone, don't you know that?! As for his reason for being here ... we're here to help Akane out in her 'punishment'. So, in short ... we're going to be cleaning the bathroom in your room. " Takuma Ichijo, the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory responded good-naturedly with a beam as he addressed the irate vampire.

Silence as Aidou Hanabusa stared at the Vice-President in shock before it changes to an expression of skepticism, and said. "Are you sure? I'm not so certain about Kiryuu's ability in cleaning a bathroom ... but I am affirmed that you've never clean one, before! Pardon me if this sounds a little rude, but honestly ... Do you even know how to clean a bathroom, properly?! "

Takuma Ichijo pouted at his friend's words, before responding. "Well ... although, I've never clean any bathrooms before ... I'm sure that with my intelligence, I certainly will be able to pick it up soon enough. "

Kiryuu Zero, meanwhile, eyed Takuma Ichijo strangely. Granted, the former had always been considered as an odd-ball within the night-class; but recently the said vampire's condition seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. How else would he be able to explain the sudden desire for the fellow vampire to approach him, and engage him in small talks every day without fail, for the past few days. Something must have gone wrong, isn't it? After all, his existence have been pretty much ignored by the said vampire except on occasional events whereby he was having another 'row' of argument with Kaname Kuran. So what causes the change and the sudden interest in the former's attitude towards him?

"It's okay, really ... Ichijo, you do not have to help me out in cleaning the toilets ... I'm pretty capable of handling it, myself. Since, I had more than enough experience of doing that over the past six years whereby I've been living with the Chairman. " Zero interjected, not exactly looking forward to work along-side with the Vice-President of the said dormitory.

"No, I want to help! Besides, its' nice to do something new, once in a while ... " Takuma Ichijo responded, his tone determined and firm.

Akatsuki Kain, whom had been listening in on the conversation between the trio broke in, just then. "Enough, Hanabusa ... Just let them in and do their job ... If you find their performance less than satisfactory, we could always lodge a complaint to Kaname-sama, later ... "

"Fine then! " Aidou Hanabusa huffed, as he stalked off towards the sofa couch of his room and slumped down on it.

Takuma, meanwhile, dragged the hesitant guardian into the room after himself as he started leading them towards the direction of the private bathroom which was shared between the two cousins.

The size of the bathroom, Zero had to admit it was generally bigger than what he had seen in the Chairman's living quarters. The bathroom was covered in pristine white tiles, and comes equipped with both the shower tap and a bathtub.

"This is nothing, every private bathroom in the dormitory was built exactly the same way as what you are witnessing now. Except for one, that is ... If you find what we have here extravagant, you should have seen Kaname's bathroom. That would be what we referred to as the term 'exquisite'. "

"... Figures Kuran would ended up having the best of everything ... " Zero muttered dryly under his breath, not bothering to lower his tone of voice. After all, he knew whatever words that came tumbling out from his mouth would have escaped the keen hearing senses of the three vampires surrounding the area.

Setting down the empty pail, Zero started to roll up his sleeves and his pants so that he would not ended up wetting them while executing the cleaning procedures. Filling up the empty pail with water, Zero unscrewed the cap to the detergent and poured a little of the solution into the water. Wetting a rag cloth with the soapy water, Zero set down to work by starting with the cleaning of the area around the basin.

"Erm ... Kiryuu, just what exactly should I do? " Takuma Ichijo asked, suddenly feeling out of place for he had no idea where to start cleaning.

"... You can start by cleaning the tub ... That should be easy enough ... All you need to do was to scrub it clean ... " Zero responded, wondering now if he had made the wrong decision to allow the fellow vampire to aid him in the cleaning task. Somehow, he had a feeling that instead of speeding up the whole cleaning process, the vampire would slowed him down in his work instead.

Seconds ticked by slowly, as the duo started to clean the bathroom. The task was being carried out in silence, with the exception of occasional instructions coming from the silver-haired guardian, and directed towards the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory. Aidou Hanabusa, on the other hand, was restless as his eyes kept on flickering towards the direction of his shared bathroom which was now being cleaned by the ex-human and his friend.

He had no idea whether the rest of the night-class members knew of Kiryuu Zero's identity as an ex-human, but he did knew. He had quite incidentally chanced upon the scenario of the former's feeding session. He had seen how the silver-haired guardian sank his fangs quite brutally and clumsily into the neck of Akane, and had to hold back a gasp of surprise by the sight that enfolded in front of his very eyes.

So that solves the mystery behind how the twins happened to be the sons of his beloved pureblood leader, and Kiryuu. Initially, the trio's arrival had stunned him too much to try and figure out how it could have happened. After all, it would be quite impossible for a human to procreate with a vampire, since they aged differently from one another. Humans generally aged faster and had a shorter lifespan as compared to the vampires, so how on earth did Kiryuu Zero ended up having kids with his beloved Kaname-sama?!

That had been the constant question that nagged at him, since the trio's arrival. However, following his chancing upon the session of 'feeding' between Akane and the silver-haired guardian. He found the answer to his unasked question, Kiryuu was an ex-human, a 'Level D' and obviously must have been turned for quite some time already. While Kiryuu's identity as an ex-human vampire gave him the answers to how it was possible for the former to procreate with his pureblood leader, but the question remains that whom had been the one to change Kiryuu.

Certainly, it could not be Kaname-sama since if that had been the case, Kiryuu would not be feeding off from Akane. Besides, Kiryuu would never be willingly bitten by Kaname since those two had obviously loathed one another existence before the trio's arrival. So whom had been the pureblood that turns Kiryuu, and Why wasn't Kiryuu with his so-called master?

Without realizing that he was now approaching the closed bathroom door, Aidou only stopped in the midst of his steps when he heard his cousin calling for his attention.

"... Hanabusa, the duo are still inside cleaning ... if you need the bathroom urgently, I'm certain that you can use Takuma's next door ... After all, Shiki's out ..." Akatsuki's voice cuts in, pausing the blue-eyed blond vampire in his steps.

"Akatsuki, I do not need the bathroom ... "

"Then why are heading towards the direction of the bathroom?! "

"What else, but to eavesdrop ... Aren't you curious about what the two of them were doing inside and behind closed door? "

Akatsuki's eyebrows shot up at his cousin's words, before responding. "What else could they be doing in there, aside from cleaning? "

"True, but I do not think that they would be cleaning in silence ... After all, Takuma seemed very interested in Kiryuu's affairs recently, don't you think so? "

"True ... but ... "

"But aren't you curious what they could be conversing about?!" Aidou Hanabusa cuts in, interrupting his cousin before Akatsuki could finished his words.

Unable to withstand the lure of the curiosity, Akatsuki found himself rising to the bait of his cousin's words. Before he knew it, he had joined his cousin outside the bathroom door, leaning in closely to listen on the conversation that took place from within.

---

Kaname Kuran, was looking for his friend, Takuma Ichijo to help him out with something. However, he found no traces of his friend's existence around the academy grounds. For a while, he wondered if his friend had went out but then, the idea was discarded when he remembered that it was Shiki's turn to shop for the dormitory, this week. So where exactly had his friend sneaked off to?

His first thought was to locate Akane, for he had a feeling that the girl would definitely knew where his friend was. Since Takuma seems to be on 'very' good terms with the girl, and while it was worrying that the two of them shared such a close relationship with one another, he knew nothing drastic had happened between them as well.

"Kaname-sama, what brings you over? " Ruka Souen, whom had opened up the door had gawked upon the sight of the pureblood prince standing outside her door.

"Ruka, I was wondering ... if Akane was around?" Kaname Kuran asked, smiling politely at Ruka.

Nodding dumbly, Ruka responded. "Yes, and would you like to come in? "

"No ... that's quite alright, could you perhaps get her for me ... if its' not too much of an inconvenience? "

"Sure! If you would just wait for a while ... " Ruka responded, her tone even as she headed towards the direction of the private bathroom in her room.

"Akane ... Kaname-sama's looking for you ... " Ruka started, keeping her tone free from any signs of displeasure - knowing for a fact that her beloved pureblood leader could hear everything that she said, clearly and audibly despite the distance.

" Erm ... yes, Kaname-sama?" Akane started, as she stepped out from the bathroom and headed over towards the pureblood's direction.

"Have you seen Takuma anywhere around? "

Akane froze, wondering if she should let the pureblood knew of her cousin's whereabouts. Well ... what's the worst that could have happened, anyway? So, she replied.

"I think he's in Aidou's room ... "

"What's he doing in there? "

"Helping Zero to clean the bathroom ... "

"... I thought, you are supposed to be the one cleaning the bathrooms ...?"

"... Zero wanted to help ... and was determined to do so ... Then Takuma came up with the brilliant idea to help Zero out ... "

"I see ..." Kaname responded, a little irked by his friend's recent desire to get 'friendly' with the silver-haired guardian.

Without another word, the pureblood turned on his heels and headed for the direction of Aidou Hanabusa's room with every intention to get his childhood friend away from a certain silver-haired hunter. The idea of his friend being alone in the silver-haired hunter's company bothered him, greatly.

Meanwhile, back in Aidou's private bathroom. Takuma decided that he was hindering rather than helping the silver-haired guardian with the cleaning task, and was about to step out of the bathroom when all hell break loose. He had been pulling the door open from his side, when Aidou and Akatsuki both stumbled forward and crashed into him. He would have been able to avoid being 'crushed' under their combined weight, when he accidentally slipped against the slippery flooring tiles of the bathroom and ended up landing literally atop of a certain silver-haired hunter, whom failed to realize his precarious situation until it was too late.

"Shit! " Takuma cursed aloud as he felt his two friends weight landed upon him. "Bloody Hell! What the hell are the two of you doing out there?! "

Akatsuki was the first to react by removing his weight from the heap of fallen bodies, as he muttered out the word 'eavesdropping' embarrassingly under his breath.

"Eavesdropping?! Are you sure, Akatsuki?! You didn't seemed to be the type of person that would felt the need to poke your nose around, in other people's businesses. " Takuma grumbled aloud, as he tried his best to maintain his position so that he would be able to avoid landing his weight entirely upon the younger man beneath him.

Akatsuki was about to respond when he froze abruptly, as his alert and sensitive vampire's senses informed him of the approaching pureblood. 'Shit!' was the only word on his mind, before he cursed aloud and started to grab his cousin pulling the former up to a standing position.

Aidou winced from the sheer force of his cousin's strength, as he grumbled aloud. "Damn it, Akatsuki ... Can't you be a little gentle ... "

"No time, Kaname-sama's coming! "

That send the blue-eyed blond into a frenzy mode as he tried to get himself up and untangled from the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory, and during which process had accidentally pushed the former downwards that inevitably resulted in the brief touching of Takuma's lips against Zero's.

That was exactly what Kaname Kuran had found himself staring at, upon his entrance into Aidou Hanabusa and Akatsuki Kain's room. Somewhere within the room, the light-bulb of a lamp snapped and exploded into nothing. Eyes blazing as aura of sheer fury emitting from each and every inch of the pureblood's body, as Kaname Kuran stalked into the bathroom and forcefully separated his friend from the stunned guardian.

'Shit! I'm dead ... ' was the only thought in the mind of the green-eyed blond vampire, as he watched his pureblood friend dragged off the stunned and stupefied silver-haired guardian in a fury.

---

Zero Kiryuu, still stunned from the event of the 'accidental kiss' with the green-eyed blond vampire failed to realize where exactly he had been dragged off by the furious pureblood. It was not until he found himself being pushed against the wall roughly, did he finally came back to his senses.

"What the hell ... " Zero found his words being cut off, when he felt the lips of the pureblood crashing against his in a rough-like manner.

"Um..mm..." Zero struggled to get his words out, but failed miserably each time. For every time he attempted to speak, the pureblood would silent him with another brutal kiss.

Initially, Zero struggled as he tried to free himself from the pureblood's grasp. However, as the seconds passes them by slowly his struggles became half-hearted. Eventually, he stopped struggling against the pureblood altogether and merely stood still while he allowed the pureblood to ravish him in silence. Tears of frustration pricked his eyes, but he refuses to let them fall.

Part of him knew he should be angry with what the pureblood was doing to him now, for it could very much be considered as a violation of his will. Yet, for some unknown reasons he was not enraged by the pureblood's actions; only confused by what was happening between them. He knew the pureblood was angry about something, that much he could sensed from the rough and brutal way that the former was kissing him.

What he failed to understand, was what had happened that sparked off the fury in the pureblood and why was the former kissing him so dominantly and possessively.

Kaname Kuran, on the other hand was furious beyond words. This was the second time around, he caught sight of someone else 'kissing' the silver-haired guardian and he was unhappy. No ... 'Unhappy' was too mild a word to describe his current feelings, 'Rage' would be a better word to describe what he was currently experiencing.

The first thing he did after separating Zero from Takuma was to drag the said hunter off to the privacy of his room, it was obvious that the former was still stunned from the previous event. The sheer thought of his friend's lips against the hunter send him over the edge completely, and before he knew it he was ravishing the mouth of the hunter against the former's will. He knew what could possibly be the consequences that follows his actions, but currently he ignored the fact. For he had only one notion in mind, and that was to claim ownership of the hunter's lips.

Zero stiffen when he felt the pureblood's hand on his waist, but relaxed visibly when he realized that the hand had not move anywhere else, and merely stationed where it was. A shudder ran through his body as he felt the kiss of the pureblood softening from its' initial rough-like manners, suppressing the urge to moan from pleasure he allowed a gasp to escape from his lips instead.

However, he felt himself tensing upon the sense of the pureblood's fangs near his neck. For a while, he almost thought that the former would bite and marked him against his will, like what Shizuka Hiou had done to him before. Which in actuality, Kaname Kuran had been contemplating on the same thought too. However, his surfacing logic kept him from marking the hunter just yet. For he wanted Zero to be willingly bitten and marked by him, so as to prevent further complications. It was bad enough of him to have kiss the hunter against his will, he would not allowed himself to do anything more than that.

Especially, now that he had finally come to terms with his desires and possessiveness for the hunter. And then, there was Yuuki to consider. For years he had waited for the day whereby he would awaken the girl to her pureblood heritage, so that they could finally be together. Now though, he was in denial.

Yuuki would have to be awaken in time, that much - he knew. Question now was what should be done when Yuuki's heritage and memory of being a pureblood was awaken. After all, Yuuki was supposed to be both his fiancee and his sister at the same time. So what should he do when Yuuki's memory was awaken? Certainly, he would be unable to build a family with Yuuki now that he was actually looking forward to his future with the silver-haired hunter.

"Oops! Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt ... Please do continue ... I didn't see anything ... " The sudden sound of Akira's voice startled both Kaname and Zero out from their daze-like manner, and they both snapped their eyes towards the intruder spontaneously.

"Akira! How long have you been standing out there watching us? " Kaname started, addressing his youngest son smoothly and calmly.

"... Long enough ... since the two of you start staring one another in the eyes ... " Akira responded, ignoring his elder twin's warning from behind.

Subaru Kiryuu, meanwhile, wanted very much to disappear right there and then. They had, after all, walked in on a very embarrassing moment between their parents'. Moreover, their father actually seemed a little peeved and probably their Daddy was not faring very good as well.

The twins' entry had managed to jolt Zero out from his stupor-like mode, and slapped Kaname hard on the cheeks by instincts before fleeing from the privacy of the pureblood's room in a flustered manner. The slap came as a shock to the pureblood, but surprisingly he felt nothing.

"... " The twins remained silent as their Daddy fled their Father's room, flushing crimson and not even daring to look at them in the face.

Turning back to their Father, whom still seemed shell-shocked from the slap received from their Daddy. Subaru sighed as he entered the room, closing the door behind him and locking it for some privacy before turning towards the elder pureblood.

"Father ... Don't take it too hard ... Dad's just embarrassed. "

"... I know ... " Kaname said, his voice tight and controlled as he responded to the elder twin's remarks.

"Father, please do not go 'picking' on Dad just because he slapped you in front of us ... Honestly, it's pointless. Besides, we aren't exactly considered as outsiders ... Your secret's safe with us! " Akira interjected, causing his elder twin to groan inwardly in response.

Kaname felt his eyebrow twitching involuntarily at Akira's words, and he sighed. "Akira ... don't worry, I won't be going around 'picking' trouble on your beloved Daddy ... I am, however, going to lecture some of your uncles for their notorious actions."

With that said, Kaname stepped out of his room leaving behind the twins to their own devices and for Seiren to keep an eye on them.

---

Takuma blanched and turned pale when his pureblood friend came towards him and requested for him to meet the former in the front lounge.

"Kaname ... look ... I'm sorry for what happened, but I swear its' an accident. I didn't plan on it happening ... " Takuma started, only to fell silent when his pureblood friend threw him a glare.

"Why are you so persistent in your attempts to get friendly with Zero ... Kiryuu, anyway? " Kaname felt himself asking, as he stared at his friend.

"... I ... just want to relate to him better ... "

"And Why is that so? " Kaname prompted, his tone flat and laced with an edge.

"... Because Kiryuu's Akane relative ..." Takuma found himself responding as he cowered under his friend's gaze.

"What has Akane got to do with your getting friendly with Zero, anyway? while we're on the subject of Akane ... pray tell, what is your reason for kissing Zero when you are obviously interested in Akane?! " Kaname had all but exploded, for the sheer memory of Takuma's lips on Zero was too much for him to stomach.

"I wasn't interested in Akane in that sense! " Takuma protested, his face turning a sickly shade of green upon his friend's words.

"Yes, and I agreed with Takuma! The sheer thought of him being interested in me ... is downright, gross and impossible! " Akane spoke up, having just arrived at the lounge after listening to Akatsuki's explanation of why Takuma was in trouble with Kaname.

"Why is that so?!"

"... " Takuma was silent, not daring to reveal anything without Akane's permission to do so.

"Because, Takuma's my cousin! That's why and I thought I've told you on more than one occasions that I am not into /INCEST!/" Akane snapped, her tone laced with irritation as she responded to the pureblood's query.

Kaname frowned, before he said. "Since when? I wasn't aware that Ichiou was related to the 'Fujiwara' ... and he had no other heir, except for Takuma's father from what I've been told ... "

"... By that ... You are referring to his legitimate son on the official records!" Akane gritted out, trying her best to refrain from snapping at the pureblood again.

Thankfully, neither of the night-class members were present in the room else Akane would not be able to escape unharmed after her behavior in the pureblood's presence today.

"You mean your father's the illegitimate son of Ichiou? "

"Yes, he is! Got a problem with that?! While we are on the subject, my family's name is not Ichijo and would never be! I'll rather be dead than to admit that hypocrite going by the name of Ichijo Asato's my grand-father! My father's only an Ichijo by blood, so please for goodness sake - stop linking him together with Asato! As far as I am concern, Ichijo Asato does not knows of my father's existence and would never know - if neither of you spoke about it!"

By then, Akane was on the verge of suffering from a nervous breakdown and was starting to get a little hysterical. Part of her was angry at the pureblood for wanting to get down to the bottom of things, and yet another part of her felt like killing Aidou who's the ultimate culprit for complicating matters by causing that accidental 'kiss' between Zero and Takuma. Which inevitably resulted in this particular situation, whereby she would have to reveal her family relations to the Ichijos' despite her unwillingness.

"Kaname ... if you really must know, Akane's father a product of a ... rape ... so please, don't press on the issue anymore. Even I, myself still have trouble stomaching the information. You want the reason why I'm so interested in Akane's affairs, and Why I've been so concerned about Akane's well-being when my grand-father's here to visit, and ultimately my reasons for wanting to be on friendly terms with Kiryuu? There ... you have it now ... and Once again, I must say that I'm sorry for kissing Kiryuu. I really didn't mean for it to happen, it was an accident and only happened because Aidou pushes me while he tried to remove his weight from my body when we all fell and landed in a heap. "

With that said, Takuma headed towards the distressed cousin and led the girl away from the lounge heading for the privacy of the girl's room. Leaving behind his pureblood friend, to soak in all the information that had been revealed over the past few minutes of time.

Akane walked in a daze-like manner, not knowing where she was going and merely allowed her cousin to lead the way. She had no intention of snapping at her adopted father, like everyone else she respected Kaname a lot. Still, with the stress that had accumulated over the past few weeks and the constant worry of how their coming back to the past would affect the future had finally taken its toll on her. Thus, resulting in her nervous breakdown during the earlier confrontation. It was a lucky thing that she had the sense to keep her voice down despite her agitation, it would after all do no good for the others to find out about her relation with the Ichijos'.

If there was anyone whom she cared greatly for in this time period, aside from the twins - it was her father. She knew Zero and Takuma would be able to handle themselves even in the worst scenarios, but her father would be unable to since she knew the former was just as old as the twins now. The very last thing which she wanted to happen was for Ichijo Asato to find out about her father's existence, it was one thing about telling Takuma as she knew the former would eventually find things out through the 'Kanzaki' clan when one of them came to visit. She was planning on informing Zero sooner or later, since she figured the former would probably be pestering her for the reason behind Takuma's over-enthusiasm at befriending him.

As for Kaname, she had always assumed that Zero would be the one telling the former. At least, that was what happened back in her own time ... but now, she realized that she had changed the past a little too much. That realization itself, was enough to send her into a state of hysteria and causing her to nearly hyperventilate. If it was not for the comfort of Takuma being next to her, she would have literally broke down, right there and then.

Takuma, meanwhile, remained silent as he held the trembling girl close to his chest while the girl cried softly in his arms. Patting Akane's head gently as he soothe the girl with his comforting gestures, he waited patiently for the girl to recover from her emotional breakdown. He knew Akane was upset, and had been stressed out by the recent happenings and he felt bad about it. If he had not been so persistent in his decision to get friendly with Kiryuu, then perhaps things would not have escalated down to this point.

Akane had always appeared to be strong-willed, which he knew she was. Still, her words of arrogance at times was to mask up her own insecurities and her constant aloof behavior that she displayed in front of the night-class members was another act of self-defense. Which was understandable, considering the fact that Akane was now surrounded by people whom were both familiar and foreign to her at the same time.

Unlike the twins whom could probably goes around doing what they pleased without dwelling too much into the situation and nobody would dared to raise any objections, simply because of their pureblood status and their being the sons of Kaname had an easier time than Akane. For Akane's situation was different, and being older than the twins' her stress would be greater to endure.

The night-class members would be able to tolerate the twins' existence, and their disrespectful acts in front of Kaname because they knew Kaname doted upon them and it remained undeniable that the twins had the blood of their pureblood leader in them. Akane, though was different - she was a noble rank vampires like the rest of them, and was merely adopted by Kaname. To them, Akane was just another relative of Kiryuu Zero whom they still loathed with a passion but was coming to tolerate the former's presence due to the twins, and their leader's orders if nothing else.

When it comes down to Akane, the night-class members were always wary of her. In fact, Akane was probably just as wary of them as they were to her. The only person among the night-class whom Akane had really opened up to, was in fact - himself but that's probably only because of his initial persistence in getting to know her and recently, because their relationship of being cousins was out in the open, Akane had allowed herself to open up more in front of him.

"Don't worry, Akane ... I'll do anything to keep your father safe from my grand-father ... I promise ... Now sleep ... Everything would be fine when you wake up ..." Takuma vowed as he laid the distressed girl down on the bed to rest, and had stayed with Akane until the girl cried herself into a fitful sleep.

~to be continued~

Date started: 19/05/09

Date completed: 20/05/09

Date edited: 20/05/09


	14. Chapter 14

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: So Zero and Kaname finally got some show XD Akane finally broke down as well ... but well, at least her life is easier now ... until Ichiru and Shizuka came and complicate things further. With the past altered, the future will definitely be changed ... Anyway, without further ado ... please enjoy!

In this chapter, Zero skipped out on his guardian's duty for a whole week not knowing how to face Kaname after what had taken place between them earlier. Things were tentative within the walls of the night-dormitory as well, as Akane kept more to herself, not speaking up unless absolutely necessary for she feared that she would risk altering the past more than what had already been changed.

---

Chapter 14 - Zero's Dilemma & Kaname's Decision

"How's Akane?" Shiki asked, when Takuma returned to their shared room within the dormitory.

Takuma Ichijo nearly jumped in fright upon the sound of his room-mate's room, he had been so engrossed in his thoughts that he failed to realize that Shiki was back from his trip to town.

"She's still a little distressed, but had calmed down gradually from before ... I managed to coax her to bed, and I certainly hoped that sleeping will help to calm her. Anyway, when did you came back and how did you know something had happened? "

Shiki Senri shrugged, before responding to his friend's question. "I've been back for quite some time already, as for what happened before ... Rima told me some details, and I saw how you led her away from the lounge ... "

"I see ... " Takuma responded, before slumping down on the sofa couch in his room wearily.

Realizing that his room mate was not about to reveal anything more, Shiki did not bothered to press on the issue further. After all, it had nothing to do with him and unlike Aidou, he was not a busybody whom enjoyed poking his nose into other people businesses.

Meanwhile, a certain silver-haired guardian had hidden himself in his room ever since he returned from the Moon Dormitory, both from confusion and embarrassment. Zero had no idea what exactly had transpired between Kaname Kuran and himself, all he had been aware of was the fact that the former had started kissing him in fury. However, his question now was what had been the reason behind the pureblood's actions?

The last time the pureblood had reacted this strangely was when Akane force-fed him ... and the sheer remembrance of that memory was enough to cue the silver-haired guardian in on the possible reason of why the pureblood had reacted in this particular manner.

Jealousy ... it must have been jealousy that spurs the pureblood into kissing him, if he had been puzzled before - he was definitely certain now. Twice, the pureblood had reacted agitatedly and strangely in his opinion; and had shown possessiveness towards him. Both events had transpired directly after his lips was claimed by another, first by Akane, and now by Ichijo.

"... " Zero was at a loss of speech now, his mind was reeling from the sheer notion of the pureblood being jealous. He cannot comprehend why the pureblood had been jealous in the first place, after all, wasn't it Yuuki whom the pureblood was in love with? Then why and what happened that resulted in the sudden possessiveness in the pureblood towards his affairs?

Just then, the sudden image of Akira and Subaru came popping into his mind and send him into yet another emotional turmoil. Right, the twins ... and he had forgotten about taking them into consideration. Was there the possibility of the pureblood being jealous, because of the former's budding feelings for him? After all, with the twins' around - the possibility of that idea was not entirely negative, was it?

Moreover, Kuran seemed to love the idea of having the twins around ... isn't that so? In order to have the twins at a later stage of time, then it would be inevitable for them to bed one another in future ... and certainly, to do so there must have been some forms of feelings between them, right? If not the feeling of 'love', then at the very least, there must have been some 'lust' between them. Isn't that right?

Yes, that must be it ... since the idea of them having love for one another was downright impossible for the silver-haired guardian to comprehend, he was going to stick by the idea of them lusting after one another in time. As for what had happened between Kuran and himself, earlier on in time - Zero was going to classify them all under the notion that the possessive streak of the pureblood towards him had somehow been awaken by the sheer future possibility of the twins' existence.

While Zero Kiryuu was back in his room, coming to his own conclusion on the event that had transpired before. Kaname Kuran, was doing the same thing in his private study. Unlike Zero whom had decided to cast his previous actions off as a sign of possessiveness that was triggered off by the possibility of their future relationship with one another and partly due to the twins' existence as well. Kaname Kuran, had decided to classify them under the category of his blossoming and undeniable attraction towards the younger man.

A talk between them would be in order, that much, Kaname was affirmed. He was not going to give the silver-haired hunter a chance to brush aside what had transpired between them earlier on, as a mere incident. The pureblood was adamant to talk things over with the ex-human, for he certainly could not pretend that their 'kiss' had never happened. He had, after all, been the one whom instigated the kiss between them and unlike the former, he was not in denial of his feelings for the said hunter.

His denial was now mostly centered on Yuuki, for he had yet to figure out what to do with the said girl. Since it was obvious that his feelings towards the silver-haired hunter had now overtake his initial desire to claim Yuuki for himself. Nonetheless, he would give it a few days before confronting the male guardian on the issue of their 'kiss'. For he believed, the former would need some time to sort things out and he, himself needed some time to come up with some sort of contingency plans since his initial plan to make use of Zero as a knight to Yuuki would never work out the way he had anticipated, now.

---

The first day when Zero had skipped out on his guardian's duty, leaving Yuuki alone to deal with the crowd of fan-girls; Kaname Kuran had not been surprised. He figured the former must have been too embarrassed to see him just yet, so he let the matter off easily without pursuit. Besides, Zero had been thoughtful enough to get Akane to cover up for his absence. Though, the girl had not looked at anyone at all and when the fan-girls gets a little too hyper; Akane had took a page out of the silver-haired guardian, and merely froze them with an icy glare of hers'.

The second and third days that passes them by, were quite a similar affair to the first day. Except for the fact that Akane looked more annoyed with each passing seconds, and more than once the rowdy fan-girls ended up being 'glare' to 'death' by the annoyed girl. By the fourth day that Zero was absent from the guardian's duty, Akane had made herself unavailable during the class change-over time as well. Therefore, it was up to Yuuki Cross alone to handle the crowd which inevitably resulted in causing the vampires of the night-class with sensitive hearing to wince each time they heard the girl blowing hard into her whistle.

By the sixth day, Aidou was on the verge for begging Akane to resume duty of the guardian or at least, get Zero back to do his job. Still, the blond managed to hold his tongue in the girl's presence for he knew the girl was still annoyed at him for his previous acts that resulted in the fall-out between their Vice-President and their pureblood leader.

Ever since that evening whereby Kaname had sought out Takuma alone for a private meeting in the lounge, there had been some tension between the duo. What exactly had happened between them, the nobles had no idea but they knew it must have something to do with the silver-haired guardian, and Akane. While the two figures of authority within the Moon Dormitory had not been glaring at one another, their lack of conversation in public unless absolutely necessary had given the nobles within the night-class enough hints to detect a fall-out between the two friends.

The feeling of displeasure that lurks within the two vampires duo must have been rather obvious, in order to warn the twins off from creating any troubles within the dormitory building. Instead of being up to mischief like they usually do, the twins were oddly subdued these few days. Even Akira, dare not make any smart-Alec comments in front of the nobles' presences which the boy usually did without caring for the consequences that might follows.

By the seventh day, exactly a week from that bathroom disaster that resulted in the final outcome of Zero being force-kiss by Kaname Kuran, himself and Akane suffered from a severe nervous breakdown. Everything started to change. Takuma whom had had enough of the depressing mood that Akane was constantly displaying in public, or at least within the walls of the Moon Dormitory decided to bring the girl out to town as an attempt to cheer the former up. And so, he sets his plan into actions.

Promptly at two in the afternoon, whereby school had just let out for the day-class students. Akane and Yuuki had just stepped out from their classroom only to find themselves being ascorted by the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory. Though curious as to why the former was out so early, Yuuki had no chance to voice her doubts aloud before she found herself being left behind, and completely alone.

Akane was no longer in sight, and it was obvious that the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory had dragged the girl off somewhere else without any warning in advance. Seeing as Takuma Ichijo was a member of the night-class, and his unusual presence within the school building before the time for the class change-over arrived had managed to stir up some trouble and sets the whole school off into a gossiping mood.

Like everyone else, Yuuki reacted in the complete similar motion too. Only she was not the one whom started the gossips and instead, was the one whom keep her ears open to listen out for any juicy details from those gossips and rumors that now was now spreading across the school like a virus of influenza. There were quite a few versions going around, some says Akane must have done something that pissed the night-class members and thus, Takuma being a 'knight in shining armor' had decided to come and help the girl out by rescuing her.

Some would claimed that those two were dating, and they have seen the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory constantly sneaking glances at the girl whenever it was time for the class change-over. Others would says that those two were in a midst of a lovers' quarrel and one of them chip in and commented that he had seen them arguing on the tennis court, a few weeks in prior. The most ridiculous and extreme rumor that spread around the school was that the two were planning to elope from the school, because their family had disagreed to their romance with one another.

"I wonder what's the fuss about ... " The sudden soft voice of Yuuki's best friend, Wakaba Sayori spoke up from behind.

"Ah ... Yori-chan, that's because Ichijo-senpai had just came by and 'kidnap' Akane ... The school population were trying to come up with a plausible explanation to that event ... " Yuuki explained, as her friend approached her and fell into steps beside her.

"... I see ... " Sayori responded, making a knowing sound as she did so.

"... " Yuuki fell silent as she started observing her friend from the corner of her eyes, Sayori had always been odd among the day-class girls. Unlike the majority of them that idolized the members of the night-class, Sayori would not even bat an eyelid even if Aidou Hanabusa, whom was normally known as the 'Idol-senpai' of the day-class students passes by her, on the corridor.

Yuuki had tried asking the girl once in prior, and Sayori's response had caught her off-guard. The former had said, there was something about the aura of the night-class members that gave her the 'creeps'. Yuuki had nearly jumped up in fright when her friend told her that, and for a while she had actually thought that her friend knew that the night-class members were all vampires. Shaking her head to rid herself of such an old-time memory, Yuuki turned towards Sayori and excused herself politely for she needed to locate Zero and 'lecture' the former for skipping out on his guardian's duty for the past week.

Sayori nodded, as she watched Yuuki skipped off happily down the hall-way. With an inward sigh, Sayori continued on her way towards the direction of the science laboratory. She had left something behind in the laboratory during the earlier science period, and she had every intention to retrieve it before the night-class members came in for their classes. She knew the majority of them would be in the science laboratory working on their projects, which she had no intention of finding out what that is.

Kaname Kuran, on the other hand, decided to go in search for a certain silver-haired hunter as well. For he decided that the former had hide himself away from the public long enough, already.

---

It was four in the early hours of the evening when Kaname Kuran finally located the said hunter in the stables. He had seen Yuuki emerging from the direction where the stables were built, so he figured the silver-haired hunter was more or less hiding himself in there. Indeed, when Kaname arrived at the stables he found himself staring at the sight of the silver-haired guardian pacing to and fro, within.

The former was obviously pre-occupied with something else on his mind, else there would be no chance of the hunter not realizing his presence since he had not bothered with the idea of masking up his aura, despite knowing the fact that Zero would most likely try to flee if his approach had been sensed.

"Don't fret yourself over nothing ... Takuma's relationship with Akane was nothing like what you've thought it out to be. " Kaname's voice that rang out from behind, startled Zero so badly that he nearly tripped and fell over nothing.

The silver-haired hunter froze, his body stance turning rigid as his hunter's senses alerted him of the pureblood's presence in close distance. 'Damn' was the only thought in Zero's mind, for he knew there would be no chance of him escaping from the pureblood's keen sight of sense now that they were practically standing side by side.

Forcing himself to calm down, Zero shifted his glance towards the pureblood as he attempted to steer his train of thoughts away from their previous 'kiss', and instead concentrated on the issue of Akane and Ichijo Takuma.

"What exactly do you mean by that? " Zero question, referring to what the pureblood had said, previously.

"I meant exactly what I've said before, Takuma's relationship with Akane was not one that deals with the prospect of romance. Instead, their relationship with one another was entirely pure and untainted. Kinship was the ultimate reason behind their close relations to one another, those two are cousins related and tied by the common blood that runs through their veins. " Kaname responded, his tone calm.

For a while, Zero looked at the pureblood as though the former was insane. How could Akane be related to Takuma Ichijo in that sense? After all, they were a century apart from one another in terms of age. However, upon closer inspection he noticed that Kaname Kuran was indeed serious about what had been revealed to him.

A frown marred his features as he tried blatantly to re-organize his thoughts, trying to make sense out of the whole situation. First and foremost, he thought back on his mother's side of the family trying to see if there had been any members whom had been disowned over the past decades or so by fraternizing with any members of the Ichijo clan. Unfortunately, there had been none.

Next, Zero tried to recall any possible hints that Akane might have dropped to him in the midst while he inquired on the girl's family relations. Yet, his mind drew a blank as well for he suddenly came to the realization that whatever Akane had told him, it involved only the 'Fujiwara' side of her heritage. There had been nothing that deals with the paternal side of Akane's parentage.

"... But how? ..." Zero found himself asking aloud, not really expecting an answer but still he was given one by the pureblood next to him, whether he wants them or not.

"By asking 'How' - do you mean how the two of them could be related to one another in that sense despite their obvious age difference, or how it could have happened? "

"I don't know ... maybe, both?! " Zero responded, a little too agitatedly as he was overwhelm by the information which he had just received from the pureblood.

Kaname was silent, as he hesitated slightly over the idea of divulging what he knew to the fellow guardian. However, it was obvious that if Zero did not received any form of response from him, the former would eventually approaches Akane and Takuma for answers, at another point of time. If that were to happen, things would bound to get ugly and the whole situation would spin out of control.

After all, Akane would not be able to handle speaking of her father's heritage and her undeniable blood relations to the Ichijo without losing her temper. Takuma, on the other hand, was no doubt reluctant to let that particular information be known either. For it would not only put a mark of blemish on the former's well-respected grand-father's reputation, but also high-lighted the fact that just how vicious Ichijo Asato could be, in reality.

It was stressful enough for his friend to be trapped in the middle when it comes down to Ichijo Asato and his obvious disagreements in their political views of their society, and further more there was the fact that his friend had supported his opinion, more so than Asato's. That had irked the prominent figure of Ichijo Asato greatly, and thus resulting in his friend's constantly being lectured and 'penalized' by the elder Ichijo during school break.

"I can't tell you much without giving away too much of their privacy ... but, I believe you had a right to know so I am going to let you in on that information. However, I would very much appreciated if you could kept the knowledge to yourself and not to seek them out for any forms of clarification. I'll have you known, Akane do not like to share that bit of information with anyone. She broke down literally after I attempted to get down to the bottom of her relationship with Takuma ... and up until now, Takuma had not been speaking to me unless it was absolutely necessary for us to converse. So do I have your cooperation on the subject? " Kaname started, sounding absolutely solemn and serious as he addressed the silver-haired hunter.

Zero had nodded in response to Kaname Kuran's words, before he could stop himself. To which, Kaname nodded in satisfaction before filling the silver-haired guardian in on exactly what had happened to result in the outcome of Akane being cousin with Takuma, whom was at least a century older than herself.

Zero had started out listening in peace, before the peace gave way to rage. The sheer idea of killing the elder Ichijo had crossed his mind briefly because he forced it down and away, keeping the idea at bay. Though, he was angry about what Ichijo Asato had done, he was not suicidal either. Since he was more than affirmed that rather than his killing Ichijo Asato, there's a more likely chance of him being killed off by the former. Moreover the logic that was in him, kept on reminding him that killing the said vampire off would not change things for Akane either. Since, what had already happened cannot be undone.

With a sigh, the silver-haired hunter turned away from the pureblood just as Kaname was done with his explanation of the whole situation. Kaname said nothing, for he knew the fellow ex-human would need some time to re-gather himself together after hearing such disturbing information.

---

Deciding that he had had enough of the silence that hungs between them, Kaname spoke up once again. This time around, he had every intention of making his desire for the silver-haired hunter be known.

"Zero ... can we talk? "

"... Aren't we talking before? " The silver-haired guardian shot back in annoyance.

"Yes, but I meant to discuss what happened between us ...last week. " Kaname started, to have Zero cutting him off.

"There's no need for us to discuss that, because nothing ever happened! " Zero's voice was tight, and controlled trying to sound as though nothing had happened between them. However, his face says things differently for he was now blushing furiously.

"... Zero, please hear me out - will you?! "

The silver-haired hunter tensed, before responding. "Why?! Why should I listen to what you've to say in response to what happened between us last week?! Isn't it enough for you that I'm just going to pretend that nothing had happened, and that I'm just going to ignore the fact that you've kissed me ! And while we're on the subject, why are you calling me by my given name?!"

At that, Kaname frowned as he questioned. "Why are you brushing aside what we shared earlier on in the week, as though its' nothing? As for my using your given name, I thought it's more appropriate considered what we had already shared between us, before ..."

By then, Zero had whirl around so that he was facing the pureblood as he responded in sheer exasperation. "Why?! You just have to ask me that - didn't you?! Wasn't that what you want from me, anyway?! That what happened between us was ... a fluke! An accident ... You didn't mean for it to happen at all, and you had trouble explaining why or how it had happened! Isn't it?! "

"... True, I agreed that what had happened between us that day was not exactly what I've in mind ... " Kaname started, but added as an afterthought when he noticed the 'See, I told you' look on the silver-haired hunter.

"Still, I hadn't wanted you to brush it aside and treat it as though nothing had happened between us ... because the kiss does not meant nothing to me! In fact, its' quite the opposite! "

Zero let out a snort and muttered something like 'As though I'll believe that' under his breath, and that caused the pureblood to let out a growl of exasperation as he responded.

"Zero, please! Believe me when I said that the kiss does means something to me - alright?! "

Zero clenched his fists by his sides, part of him wanted so much to believe the pureblood's words and yet another part of him was still wary of what the pureblood was telling him. Frustrated with the whole situation, Zero snapped at the pureblood.

"How do you expect me to believe you that our kiss had meant something to you ... when it's so obvious that you love Yuuki! Even if our kiss did meant something to you, I'll bet that its' only your sudden desire to lust after me, that spurs that idea on!"

Kaname fought to keep his own temper from lashing out, as he responded to the irate guardian's words. "Don't you dare to tell me off for loving Yuuki! I'm certain that deep within your heart, you love her as well! "

"That's different! I love her as a sister ... !" Zero retaliate, sounding irritated that the pureblood had dragged him into the topic of loving Yuuki as well.

"... There you said it! If you can love Yuuki like a sister, so why can't I do the same too?! " Kaname argued, as he contemplated on the idea of letting the silver-haired guardian in on his actual relationship with Yuuki.

Zero snorted again, before responding. "Honestly, you expect me to believe that? Somehow your past actions and behaviors around Yuuki failed to convince me ... because they seemed a little too affectionate to be classify under the category of 'brotherly love'. "

"Damn it! Yuuki's my blood sister, and I think my actions around her in the past are justified because we've been meant to marry one another since young! " Kaname cursed aloud, as he dropped the truth behind his relationship with Yuuki above the head of the silver-haired guardian like a bombshell and expect the former to suck it up, with stride.

"... What?! How?! " Zero started, gaping as words failed him yet again for the second time that evening.

"... Was that the only thing you are capable of saying now? Anyway, I can't explain them to you ... at least, not now ... but would you please believe what I've said just now? " Kaname responded, sounding absolutely weary of the whole situation. Zero stared wordlessly at him for quite some time, and Kaname found himself holding his breath as he awaited for former's response. Eventually, a sigh of relief escaped from him as the silver-haired guardian gave him a tentative nod in response.

"Thank you ... Zero ... I really appreciate it, and please ... keep what you've just learn from me, away from Yuuki's knowledge ... I don't want her to know or remember yet. "

"... Fine, but don't you dare to think that I'll follow your words or commands blindly like the rest of them in the night-class! " Zero Kiryuu warned, his tone gruff as he addressed the pureblood standing awfully close to him now.

"I know, and I wouldn't dream of it happening ... anyway ... " Kaname whispered, as he took another step closer to the younger man and pulled the former in for a hug. He felt the hunter tensed slightly under his touch, before relaxing in his embrace.

The thought of kissing Zero did crossed his mind, but Kaname decided against it for the time-being. Figuring that Zero was probably still uncomfortable with the idea of them being in such close proximity. They continued on in that position until several minutes later, when they heard the school bell ringing out from the main school building.

"Come on, we'd better go ... its' time for the class change-over already. I doubt Yuuki would enjoy handling the crowd alone, today ... " Kaname suggested, as he pulled himself away from the silver-haired hunter, with his typical cool mask of indifference back on.

Zero too, took a few minutes to re-gather his wits before schooling his features into one of annoyance as he stalked off in the lead, leaving behind the pureblood to follow in his wake.

~to be continued~

Date started: 20/05/09

Date completed: 23/05/09

Date edited: 23/05/09


	15. Chapter 15

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: I apologize for the lack of twins actions in the last chapter, and I promise to make it up in this chapter ... so this chapter would have some 'sweet' family time involving both parents of the twins. :P Yes, before I forgot ... I noticed some reviews were saying that there's a lack of Zero's growing attraction towards Kaname in the previous few chapter ... Well, that's because ... I don't think Zero had the mood to be thinking about such feelings as of yet. In the manga, he had lived this long to seek revenge on Shizuka ... so I doubt he would have time to contemplate about 'love' at all. he might cared and worried, but his thoughts would never traveled to the idea of 'love'.

Therefore, until Shizuka's dead and buried ... I don't think Zero would have the time to fathom out his growing desire to Kaname. So far, I might have given out the signal that Zero seemed resign to the whole idea ... Which, I had to agree. However, one could look at it this way - there must have been some feelings in him in order to make him feel resigned to the idea of being together with Kaname. He just didn't want, nor have the time to fathom out his feelings towards the former now.

Also, if one had read the confrontation part (on the kiss) in the previous chapter ... One could easily see how upset Zero had seemed at one point of the time, when he blow up at Kaname for pressing on the reason why he was denying their kiss, altogether. If he didn't feel anything towards Kaname, then his reaction should not be this 'big' ... He could have just said that the kiss didn't mean anything to him, but he did not. Instead, he blew up at Kaname ... Well, then again ... To each of own. Perhaps, my hint of Zero did feel something for Kaname wasn't that clear to everyone but well ... *shrugs* On with the next chapter!

---

Chapter 15 - Calm before the Storm!

Akane and Takuma was just returning from their trip to town when they found the twins huddled in one isolated corner of the Moon Dormitory talking softly among themselves. It was now twelve mid-night, and Takuma had spend the whole day entertaining her in town, not giving up on the notion until he was successful in getting a laugh out from her.

"... What the hell are the two of you doing here? " Akane asked, as she look at the twins with intent hoping that they had not been up to any mischief while she was away with Takuma.

"Erm ... nothing ... we're just talking ... " Akira said in response, trying to hide something behind his back.

Unfortunately, that little action failed to escape from the girl's keen sight and soon whatever Akira had been trying to hide from her had ended up in her outstretched palm. It was a cell-phone that currently sat on her palm, and she held it closer to herself for an inspection.

"I see." Akane said after a moment of inspection, the twins were obviously holding a discussion on the pictures that was kept in that particular phone's memory slot.

"Akane?" Takuma prompted, only to have the girl throwing the phone carelessly towards his direction.

Catching hold of the device with his fast reflex, Takuma had to refrain from blanching when he caught sight of a particular picture of him 'kissing' a certain silver-haired guardian. That was obvious a snapshot which had been taken during the whole bathroom incident, but he failed to understand just how on earth did anyone managed to get a shot at that particular scene. After all, the incident took place in the bathroom of Aidou and Akatsuki. Takuma was affirmed that neither of them had their cell-phones' camera mode activated during that point of time, so how is it that a shot had been taken without his knowing?

"Akira, where on earth did you get that from?" Akane asked, her voice tight and controlled.

It was bad enough that Kaname walked in upon that scene, and it would be 'hell' if the former had gotten hold of that device before she did.

"... I found it ... in Uncle Shiki's room, just now ... " Akira responded, honestly not daring to test his adopted sibling's patience as he knew the former had a nasty temper if provoked.

"What?! " Takuma was floored, as Akira's words hits home when he realized that the phone was no one else but his own.

"Takuma?" Akane shot him a questioning look, which he ignored pointedly as he went through the memory stick of his cell-phone hurriedly and deleting any other questionable pictures that involved a certain silver-haired guardian. If Akira had not mentioned that the phone was found in his shared room with Shiki, the memory of him 'testing' out the auto-recording function on this particular phone of his would have slipped from his mind, entirely.

"It's nothing, I've destroyed each and every pictures or videos on that particular scene now. I can't believed I didn't bother to check the phone memory over the past few days ... " Takuma muttered aloud, inwardly thankful that his friend had yet to chance upon those pictures and videos footage in his new phone.

Turning towards the twins, Takuma said. "Do me a favor - please, do not reveal anything about what the two of you had seen in that phone of mine, understand? I do not wish to have your father killing me, for something which had been nothing but a mere accident. "

The twins nodded in response, and Takuma heaved a sigh of relief at that. Still, he was on his guard and was now preparing himself mentally for what might still happened to him if either one of the twins, slipped up and tell.

"... Don't tell me that phone is yours? " Akane's voice sounded odd to him, that he looked up immediately to find his cousin staring at him with mock horror.

"Yes ... the phone's mine, and No. I do not have a death wish yet. I was just testing out a function on that phone, and merely forgotten all about it until now. Therefore, please rest assured that I am not interested in your grand-uncle in that manner! " Takuma stated, his tone stern and warning while he addressed Akane.

"Alright, I get the point." Akane responded, shrugging nonchalantly before shifting her attention back to the twins and said.

"So ... why are the two of you out here, and not with your father? " Akane questioned, a little bewildered by the fact that the twins were being left alone to their own devices and without anyone watching them.

The twins shared a secret smile between themselves, before smirking and said in unison. "Oh ... We wouldn't want to interrupt them again. "

"Huh? " Akane blinked, completely out of the loop and was utterly bewildered by the twins' response.

"Daddy's here ... " That was all Subaru was willing to reveal, anything more his mask of cool indifference would break and he would be blushing madly like a tomato for all to see.

"Yeah, Daddy's here and he's upstairs with Father now. " Akira elaborated on his twin behalf, before adding on. "So we were told to entertain ourselves in Uncle Shiki's presence ... but Uncle Shiki is too tired, so he dozed off. Since we've got nothing better to do, we started poking around the room and see if there's any interesting things for us to find ... "

"I see ... and the two of you ended up finding /that/ gadget. Am I right to say so?" Akane summed up, putting a stop to Akira's incessant chatters.

"Well ... yes ... " Akira's remaining statement was cut off again, this time around because their parents were coming down the stairs and heading towards their direction.

---

Zero Kiryuu sighed aloud, as he felt the hands of Kaname Kuran groped him for the umpteen times that night, since he had allowed to let the pureblood 'talk' him into spending some quality time with their future kids.

"Enough Kuran! Isn't it about time for us to check on the twins already?! You dragged me back here with you when your class ended just now, claiming to say that we should spend some time together with the twins. However, once we arrived at the dormitory ... the first thing you did was to send them out to check something with your cousin. Then you suggest having some tea while waiting for them to return, that I had already obliged. Then now, with the twins being away for what seems to be an eternity ... all that you're interested in doing, was to grope me?! "

"... Am I making you uncomfortable? " The pureblood asked, frowning.

Zero fought the urge to roll his eyes heaven-wards, as he replied. "Of course, you are making me uncomfortable! In case your memory failed you, I should perhaps reminded you again ... Several hours ago, you've only just admitted to the fact that our previous 'kiss' did mean something to you. However, you did not elaborate on just what exactly does the 'kiss' between us meant ... All you wanted for me to do was to believe in your words, which I did /believe/ ... much to my own chagrin."

"Then you dropped the bombshell of Yuuki being your blood sister, and that the two of you are engaged to be married since young ... thus justifying your past actions around her, and simply expect me to suck it up with stride and without questions raised. Which I apparently did, much to my own confusion. You claimed that you would let me know the details in time, which again, I /believe/ in them. I had no reason to believe you, but I still did ... something which my master would deemed it stupid, and I pretty much agreed with that notion as well. "

"Now you ask me if your actions are making me uncomfortable? Of course, they are! You are practically molesting me, without my /consent/ again ... I might add. Why am I still putting up with those actions of yours, I had no idea. May I remind you again, that we still have a rather /questionable/ relationship here? "

"... True, but I thought ... that we've agreed on the idea that there had been some undeniable feelings between us? Wasn't that enough already? For now, I mean ... "

"Yes ... casting aside the usual feeling of dislike and loathing that we had always felt towards one another, I agreed that there's something else between us now. Still, that new feeling that arises between us ... What was it? Love? No ... not quite there yet ... Lust? Maybe ... seeing as how you have been trying to 'molest' me whenever your hands are free to roam ... Desire? Yes, I agreed ... otherwise, you would not be groping me everywhere now ... So what is it? " Zero pressed on, relentlessly.

"Zero! Honestly, I had no idea yet ... but if you really need an answer out from me, I guess you can classify it under the feeling of 'Lust' for the moment. I'll let you know if something better comes up ... And now, let's not delay any further ... and shall we proceed on to locate the twins then? " Kaname cut in, before the silver-haired hunter could start ranting again.

Thus, the duo abandoned the comforts of the pureblood's room and went in search for the twins that had went missing sometime ago. The first room which Kaname had check out was the room of the shared room of Takuma and his cousin, Shiki. When he failed to find the twins in there, he did the most natural thing that came popping into his mind. He allowed his keen vampire senses to lead them to the twins'.

"Come on, let's go ... they're downstairs in the front lounge. " Kaname said, as he reached for Zero and pulled the silver-haired teen after him.

---

"Kaname-sama ... " Both Takuma and Akane greeted as the pureblood made his way down the stairs with the silver-haired hunter in tow.

"Akane ... Takuma ... " Kaname Kuran greeted, his voice devoid of emotions as usual. Zero, on the other hand, greeted Akane warmly before turning towards Takuma with a nod of acknowledgement.

Turning towards the twins, Kaname asked bringing up an idea which he had on his mind since early evening. "Boys! Would the two of you like to go ice-skating with Daddy and me? "

Upon Kaname's suggestion, Zero arched an eyebrow up in skepticism as he questioned. "Honestly? ... Ice-skating at such hours? It's awfully cold out there, you know? Speaking of which, where do you intend to skate? "

"There's a lake out there on the school grounds and I'm certain it had frozen by this period of the season, thus making it solid enough for us to skate on without fearing that it will crack under pressure. " Kaname responded, matter-of-factly deciding to keep the information that he had send Aidou out earlier to freeze it, instead of letting the nature does its job. "So ... Akira, Subaru ... what do you think? " Kaname asked, directing his attention back to the twins.

Subaru shrugged, while Akira cheered upon the prospect of going ice-skating with his parents. Meanwhile, Akane merely sighed inwardly before making a move to leave the area.

She was, however, stop in the midst of her steps when she heard Zero calling out for her attention. Turning towards the silver-haired teen, Akane asked. "Yes?"

"Akane, would you perhaps like to join us? Ichijo can join us too ... that is if he wanted to. " Zero added, when he realized that Akane seemed rather hesitant about joining them for the ice-skating session.

Initially, Kaname felt slightly irked by the idea of having his friend joining them for the trip. He had no problem with having Akane around, since he knew Zero would not have wanted to leave the girl behind alone while they head out to spend some quality time as a family. However, the idea that he could easily have Zero's attention to himself if his friend was around to keep the twins occupied with the help of Akane fleeted past his mind for a while and he felt his mood being lightened up significantly.

"Yeah, do join us ... Takuma, we could do with some help in getting the twins to behave. " Kaname interjected, trying to sound casual as he tighten his hold on the waist-line of the silver-haired hunter.

Zero Kiryuu, on the other hand, tried to ignore the pureblood's hand on his waist before he brought up another question in response to Kaname's suggestion of going ice-skating.

"So what are we supposed to do about the ice-skating gears? "

Kaname smirked, before he replied. "Worry not ... I have them ready in my room, all we have to do now is to retrieve them. Takuma have his own gears somewhere as well, and I'm sure that Akane could have Rima's old gear since the former had bought a new set recently for an advertisement shoot."

"... " Akane and Takuma shared a look among themselves, if they had any suspicions on the issue before. They were now absolutely certain that Kaname had planned for the ice-skating session in advance, otherwise how could the former have gotten everything that was necessary for the ice-skating session ready in such a short span of time.

With a shake of their heads, Akane and Takuma both headed off in search of their respective gears. Whereas, Kaname merely send Seiren to retrieve the gears from his room without the need to move himself.

Fifteen minutes later, Akane and Takuma returned to the front lounge with their ice-skating gears. Instead of Rima's old gears, Akane had ended up with Shiki's instead. Initially, Akane had refused but Takuma had managed to convince her into accepting Shiki's gears claiming to say that the gears are meant to be unisex, and it would not matters whether or not does it belongs to a male, prior to her use.

"Everyone's ready? Come on, let's go then ... " Kaname announced, as he started to do 'head-counts' to indulge the kids despite knowing that there was no need for a head-count since he knew there was no one missing from their party.

---

Aidou Hanabusa sulked as he gazed at the sight of the twins skating around his beloved pureblood leader, longingly. It was just not fair for him to be ban from joining the group in their ice-skating session when he had been the one whom had spend hours during the early hours of the night, freezing the lake to the extend that it would be able to support the weight of a group of people skating upon the frozen surface of the lake.

"... Hanabusa, that's enough. Stop sulking ... You are not a three years old!" Akatsuki Kain told his cousin, trying his hardest to refrain from rolling his eyes at the blond.

" ... " In response to his cousin's comments, Aidou Hanabusa only threw a look of annoyance before his expression turns back into his previous sulking look.

"It's just not fair! Why is it that Takuma's allowed to join them, whereas I'm not?! " The blue-eyed blond vampire complained, taking on the look of an abandoned puppy.

"Like what Takuma had said before, he was there by invitation. Otherwise, he would be here with us now! Besides, I believe the ice-skating session would help both Kaname-sama and Takuma to get over their differences, and re-acquainted." Akatsuki said as he shifted his eyes away from the book that he was reading, and directed them towards his cousin again.

"I know ... the atmosphere between them need to be lighten up, it's been too heavy with tension recently. " Aidou agreed with his cousin's opinion, despite the fact that he was currently green with envy directed towards a certain green-eyed blond vampire.

Over at the frozen lake, the twins were happily skating on the ice with Takuma and Akane watching over them. On the other side of the lake, a certain pureblood was trying to molest Zero again by coming up with the brilliant suggestion to coach the former in the fields of skating.

"Kuran! Do me a favor, and stop holding me so tightly - would you?" Zero protested, when he realized that the pureblood had no intention of letting go of his waist despite the fact that he could now stand upright on the ice without stumbling.

"But if I let go, you might fall." Kaname responded, matter-of-factly as he looked at his companion innocently.

"Still, I must insist that you let go of me this instant and proceed on to check on the twins. If it helped to set your mind at peace, you need not worry about me because I would not be wandering off by myself. " Zero replied, sounding firm as he tried to persuade the former into letting go of him.

"I believe the twins are in capable hands, neither Takuma nor Akane would let them disappeared from their sight. " Kaname responded, affirmly.

Zero sighed inwardly, resigning himself to the idea that the pureblood was not going to leave him alone to his own device throughout the whole skating session. "Fine then, but do prevent yourself from groping me in places where you should not be touching in the first place. "

Kaname said nothing, only shrugged in return. Which literally translated to 'No promises though but I can always try to keep that in mind' in Zero's opinions.

Thank goodness that it was now in the middle of the night, and no one else could see Kaname leading Zero as the duo skated on the ice. If not, Zero would be so embarrassed that he might wish to die right there and then; especially when Kaname had obviously held him close throughout the whole skating session.

Unknowingly to them all, someone was indeed observing them in the dark. However, before either of the vampires could sensed their silent observer. That intruder had departed and blend into the dark surrounding.

---

Ichiru Kiryuu was upset, but he refused to let his anger show. He was on a scouting mission for Shizuka Hiou, and his duty was to check the environment of the Cross Academy in details. Not wanting to risk detection to himself, he had wisely chosen to act on the mission in the middle of the night. Still, the academy grounds were not as abandoned as he had hoped initially.

He had been checking out the area near the school's lake, when he sensed a group of six approaching. Hiding himself behind in the shadows of the woods, he waited patiently for the newcomers to emerge from the shadows. Due to the fact that he was hiding some distances away from the group, he was unable to see each and everyone of their faces clearly. However, among the six newcomers; he could easily recognized one of them.

Zero Kiryuu, his mirror image and identical twin brother. That was the first person he recognized, then his eyes fell upon the sight of the two children surrounding his elder twin, and another person. He watched as his twin kneel down to the kids' level, before giving them a friendly pat on the head after conversing with them. After some time, the kids wandered off towards the other two figures standing near the lake but his mind paid them no attention. His attention was solely focused and centered upon his twin and that man standing next to Zero.

His fist tightened into a clench, when he witnessed how the man had pulled his twin in for an embrace. For a while, he had hoped that his twin would pulled away from the man but unfortunately, his wish went un-answered. All Zero did was to throw the former a look of annoyance, but did nothing else more than that. Ichiru was mad, he wanted so much to throttle that man for touching his twin in that manner. Still, he suppressed the rage which was threatening to break forth and turned away from the scene in a hurry.

He needed to get himself away fast, before he did something that might threaten to thwart the plans of Shizuka-sama. The thought of Shizuka Hiou calm his senses, and his hurried steps turned into purposeful strides. Thinking of Shizuka Hiou always seems to calm him down, why though? He had no idea, nor does he want to fathom out the reason behind his strange attraction to that pureblood whom wiped his family out in front of his eyes.

Meanwhile back at the lake, Takuma nearly stumbled and fell when he almost crashed into his cousin whom had suddenly stopped in the midst of her skating. Thankfully, his quick vampires' reflexes saved him from crashing into the girl. Still, he could not helped but asked.

"Akane? What's wrong? Why'd you stopped? "

The sandy-brown haired vampire shakes her head in response, and said. "Nothing ... I just thought, I sensed someone staring at us but when I looked up, there's nobody there. "

Takuma frowned, before responding. "Well, I didn't sensed anyone ... so you might be hallucinating. Perhaps, you are just tired. After all, you've never stayed up so late before. "

"Maybe, who knows?! " Akane responded, before dismissing the matter entirely as she turned her attention back to the twins. She was just in time to see Akira trying to do a somersault on the ice, and barked out a warning for Subaru to freeze the boy in mid-action.

"Damn it Akira! This is not a real skating rink, if you do that ... the ice on the surface of the lake might cracked then you will find yourself drowning! " Akane lectured the boy for his notorious actions, before informing the boy that if she should catch him doing the same thing again. Akira could jolly well says good-bye to all his candies collection that the boy had been hiding from her knowledge.

Akira gaped, as he asked. "How did you know?!"

"I know everything, I'm just not in the mood to care over the past week! " Akane responded, feeling the start of a headache as she answered Akira's question.

Deciding that she had been forgoing her sleep for far too long, Akane turned towards the direction of Kaname and Zero as she projected her voice across, such that she would not risk any wrath from Kaname for interrupting them.

"I apologized for interrupting ... but I need my sleep. Could we either call it a night, or the two of you could just take on some parental responsibilities and actually watched over the twins yourselves. Instead of dumping them to Takuma and myself, while the two of you spend some quality time getting to know one another back there! "

"See! I told you we should watched over Akira and Subaru ourselves!" Zero muttered aloud as he threw a glare towards the pureblood's direction, before responding to Akane's words.

"It's alright, Akane. I think we should probably call it a night, its' late. Besides, unlike Kuran and Ichijo ... I do need some time for rest, as well. Seeing as I have every intention to report for classes tomorrow morning. " Zero gritted out, as he shot a warning glare towards the pureblood whom was still holding him in a vice-like grip.

With an inward sigh, Kaname let go of the silver-haired hunter reluctantly allowing everyone to pack up and leave the area. The twins were told to follow Akane and Takuma's lead, while Kaname offered to send Zero back to the Sun Dormitory much to the silver-haired teen's aghast. Still, Zero's protest against the idea was in vain as the pureblood refuses to listen to him. The former even threaten to kiss him, if Zero attempted to protest against the idea again.

It was a good thing that Zero was living alone in the Sun Dormitory, otherwise he might find himself in trouble for entering his room through the window. Then again, what could he do? It was three in the middle of the night now, going through the front gate of the Sun Dormitory would be mission impossible as it would required waking the keeper of the dormitory. Moreover, he had with him the president of the Moon Dormitory and the rules of the dormitory had specifically specified that no members of the Moon Dormitory would be allowed in the territory of the Sun Dormitory.

Although, Kaname had offered the option of having Zero stayed at the Moon Dormitory for the night. Zero had refused, he would rather die than to spend a night in the company of the vampires'. His attitude towards the night-class may have cooled down recently due to the twins' and Akane, but that still does not change the fact that he still hated the vampires in general.

Spending time with the pureblood by his side without attempting to kill the former was already considered to be a miracle, but asking him to sleep while being surrounded by those vampires were pushing his limits. Especially, he knew for a fact that there was quite a number of night-class members whom would not hesitated to kill him in his sleep. The only reason they have been holding back was probably because of the twins' or it could be the orders of the pureblood currently standing beside him.

"Alright, Kuran ... I'm back, so can you please leave already?" Zero questioned, as he turned towards the dark-haired president of the Moon Dormitory.

The pureblood shrugged, before heading towards the direction of the window. Pausing slightly in his steps, he shifted his attention back to the silver-haired guardian and asked.

"Zero, can I see you again tomorrow?"

"Aren't you already seeing me on a daily basis? "

"I meant, some other time aside from the class change-over period. " Kaname responded, half in exasperation.

"We shall see ... " Zero muttered aloud before he ignored the pureblood altogether and dumped himself unceremoniously on his bed.

Silence before he sensed the absence of the pureblood's presence in his room, sighing aloud as he shifted his position such that he was looking up at the ceiling.

"Damn ... Master Touga would kill me if he knew what I've been doing over the past twenty hours or so ... Well, although I had to agree ... spending time in the companionship of Kuran might not be that bad after all. That is, if I overlooked the fact that he's supposed to be my arch nemesis."

'Yeah right ... an arch nemesis who seemed determined to get in your pants ...' His inner voice reminded, pointedly.

As soon as that thought crosses his mind, Zero felt like groaning aloud at the sheer complexity of the situation. He was supposed to hate all vampires in general, yet he found himself enjoying the company of some of them. He had envisioned himself to continue loathing the existence of all pureblood vampires in general but he was told that he would be sleeping and procreating with one in the near future.

He was supposed to be feeling angry about the kiss which Kaname Kuran had forced upon him last weekend, and yet he found himself feeling a slightest hint of pleasure despite the brutality of the kiss. He should be shoving the pureblood away for 'molesting' him, but somehow he had put up with the former's advances without his knowing why. For heaven's sake, he had believed what the pureblood was telling him during their earlier confrontation when his logic was telling him not to trust the words of a vampire. Still, he choose to believe in them. What on earth was going on with him? Was he going insane? Was this a sign that indicated his approaching fate of falling to the 'Level E'? If not, then pray tell why was he having such delusional actions?

'Damn ... this is getting nowhere! I must be going crazy, why else would I be enjoying the companionship of Kuran? Worst, I'm also debating with my inner self. After all, people always says talking to one-self is the first sign into insanity. ' Zero thought to himself, before he settled himself into a restless sleep.

~to be continued~

Date started: 23/05/09

Date completed: 24/05/09

Date edited: 24/05/09


	16. Chapter 16

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: I apologized for the little 'OOC' in Kaname in the last chapter, I must have been spending time writing too much of Takuma over the past week ... so ... ^^;; I'll be sure to keep Kaname in character as much as possible, but there would be no guarantee since sometimes I just wrote whatever reactions that comes to mind for the characters ... so, once again. Apologies in advance ^^;;

---

Chapter 16 - Maria Kurenai

The morning after the ice-skating trip, both Akane and Zero were in a relatively bad mood. Their reasons, though were entirely different from one another. For Akane, it was due to her waking up late and thus ended up being late for class since her 'transferring'. For Zero though, he had a couple of reasons in mind that resulted in his bad mood for the day. Then again, not that it matters since his mood had never been good ever since his family's demise.

First and foremost, he had woken up to his dormitory mate banging on his door loudly claiming that the Chairman wanted to see him prior to the lessons' time. Thus, he forgo the idea of sleeping in entirely and simply decided to get himself dressed for the day. When he arrived at the Chairman's place, instead of the owner he found Yuuki sleeping with an unguarded expression on the sofa couch of the Chairman's living room.

Then, his blood-lust had decided to rear its' ugly head at him reminding him of the fact that he had not been feeding from Akane over the whole of last week. With Yuuki sleeping so peacefully on the couch, the temptation to bite the girl was great but he managed to stop himself before he could get too close to the sleeping girl. Just when he was about to heave a sigh of relief at his own self-restrain, Kaname Kuran choose that very moment to walk through the door.

{Flashback}

"I certainly hoped that you are not doing what I'd thought you're doing ... " Kaname Kuran had said, upon sighting his uneasy expression on his features.

There was a moment of tense silence before the pureblood addressed him again, "You shouldn't be this surprise about my presence, I'm just here to speak with the Chairman on some issues. Besides, haven't you been around long enough to know that I don't always required a permission from the Chairman just to pay a visit to his living quarters? " Kaname Kuran then smirked at his look of surprise.

He had said nothing then, for he was simply too stunned to move. Thank goodness, he had managed to stop himself before he bite Yuuki out of the sheer temptation of blood-lust, if nothing else. The pureblood might be lusting after him, but he certainly doubt he would be able to get away unharmed if he were to be caught biting Yuuki for blood. The pureblood would definitely kill him then.

Just when he was about to heave a sigh of relief when the pureblood turned to leave the place, he nearly stumbled at the former's next words.

"If you are looking for the Chairman, he's over at his study. Have I not told you of the reason why I've kept you alive thus far? The only reason that I've kept you around and alive, despite the countless times of your open defiance towards me was for you to protect Yuuki. Because I knew you would never do anything to betray her. Well ... at least, that had been my intention towards you, up until recently. " The pureblood's tone had been firm, before it suddenly turned so soft that Zero had some trouble catching wind of the former's words.

With that, Kaname Kuran had left the room completely and leave him behind alone to soak everything in.

"Damn you, Kuran! Of all the possible timings that you could've told me about that ... You just had to say that now, don't you?! " He muttered aloud sullenly, his mood darkening for a significant moment before heading towards the direction of the Chairman's study. Just when he thought his impression of the pureblood was improving, the pureblood had to say something like that to remind him of how he should be hating the former.

{End Flashback}

Turns out that the Chairman's reason for wanting to see him, was because of an elimination order issued by the hunters' association and directed towards him. The head of the hunters' association had wanted to test out his ability to hunt a 'Level E' vampire down, wanted to see if he would be able to carry out a mission without hesitation or failure. His initial reaction was to reject the order, but the Chairman had told him that rejection was simply not allowed and that was to go along with the order issued by the association, and hoped that it would only be a one-time issue.

Thrown in the fact of his barely suppressed blood-lust, it would be a miracle if he was not in a bad mood. The sheer idea of him approaching Akane for blood, instead of the former locating him when he needs it was making him uncomfortable. Still, for the sake and the safety of the school's population, he would have to do it.

---

Kaname Kuran, on the other hand, was feeling weary both physically and emotionally. Physically because this was the sixth morning that he had forgo the idea of sleeping, just for the sake of sorting out his thoughts and plans if nothing else. Emotionally, he was tired out by the internal struggle of 'tug-and-war' between his desires for Zero, and his devotion towards Yuuki.

He desired the silver-haired hunter vastly, and so much so that it scared him shit-less. Yes, he was scared because the feeling that he felt towards Zero was not within his expectations. He expected loathing or hatred when it comes down to dealing with the silver-haired hunter, not the feeling of lust; concern and something else which he still had some trouble putting a name to it.

With Yuuki, he had been prepared to devote all his love towards the girl since young. Everything that he owns, be it his blood, fortune or heart - it would be given freely and shared with Yuuki, unquestioningly. Yet now, a part of him wanted to share these things with the silver-haired hunter too and that freaked him out.

The logic in him was trying to tell him that this was just a phase, something which was triggered by the trio's arrival and that it will passed. After all, the future was always subjected to changes, isn't it? Yet, another part of him think otherwise. That part of him was his heart and desires, and they are the one that got him accustomed to the idea of having a future with Zero.

"Father?" Akira's voice jarred the pureblood out from his thoughts, as he looked up from his seated position on the couch to find his youngest twin son approaching him.

"Yes, Akira? Do you need another bed-time story ?" He questioned, wondering about the reason why the boy had yet to settle in bed when Subaru had fallen asleep as soon as the boy's head hits the pillow on his King-size canopy bed. The ice-skating session from before had obviously tired the elder twin out, but it was obviously not the case for Akira.

"Something's bothering you. " Akira Kuran said simply, as he climbed onto the lap of his younger father without the former's permission.

If Kaname was surprised by the boy's sudden desire to be empathetic to his troubling thoughts, he did not showed it. Instead, he allowed the boy to get comfortable on his lap before speaking up. "Yes, something's indeed bothering me but its' nothing that you should concern yourself with. "

The boy pouted childishly for a minute, before a cocky expression took form on his features. Looking up at Kaname, Akira started. "Well ... you can choose not to tell me anything that's troubling you, but you can't stop me from taking a wild guess at it. "

Kaname arched an eyebrow up in skepticism, but still he indulged the boy by urging Akira to share those insights with him. "Go on, and take your chances at it. Although, I doubt you will know what has been bothering me. "

For a while Akira said nothing, merely looked up at him with those beautiful lilac eyes that reminded him so much of a certain ex-human, nearly causing him to shift uncomfortably under his son's unwavering eyes. Then suddenly, the eye contact between Akira and himself broke and he suddenly found himself holding his breath when the boy started to speak.

"Ah ha! I knew it! You are having trouble dealing with your feelings towards Daddy! " Akira proclaimed proudly, and confidently.

For a split second, Kaname Kuran's usual mask of indifference nearly cracked but he managed to keep himself from pressing for an answer out from the boy seated on his lap. Instead, he merely stared down at the boy hoping that the intensity of his gaze would perhaps get an appropriate explanation of how Akira had managed to tell what exactly was on his mind before.

Akira, being a pureblood and the youngest son of Kaname Kuran, did not even flinch despite being subjected to the fierce intensity of his younger father's gaze. Instead, the boy merely responded lazily and with a hint of dry humor lacing the tone of his voice as he explained himself to his younger father.

"Excuse me, I may have acted 'dense' or 'stupid' at the majority of the time here ... but I am still your son, alright?! Do you think I'm really that 'thick' to have not realized what has been bothering both my parents', after observing how they behaved around one another, for such a long period of time? Granted, both of you were younger now ... but still, I'm sure that nothing much have really changed over the years. "

"Alright, fine! Something did changed over the years, Daddy's hatred towards the vampires had lessen greatly. Your tolerance towards the hunters' have improved gradually. The social status of Daddy in the society of the vampires had improved significantly. You started showing your real emotions freely instead of hiding them behind a mask of indifference among friends and families, but in public - you'll still hide them from sight. The same to go for Daddy.

The two of you had also grown accustomed to each other ways of thinking, and had learn to accept the obvious differences to the thoughts of one another. I think that's enough for the time-being, if I continue on any further ... I'll be giving you all the answers on how to make that relationship between Daddy and yourself work, without you making any efforts with relations to that issue! "

Akira ended his long-winded speech with a grin of triumph, as he took in the dumbfounded look on the features of his younger father. He almost punched his fist into the air as a sign of victory to celebrate his successful attempt to crack his father's usual mask of indifference.

"Now ... I'm off to bed, good luck sorting out your thoughts on the issue. " Akira commented, as he headed back towards the bedroom to join his elder twin in bed while leaving behind his young father to digest what he had just revealed and said.

"Damn! I can't believed I actually let my future son gain the upper hand on me ... " Kaname muttered aloud to himself, as soon as he regained his composure.

Then a certain image of him showing his 'affections' towards the silver-haired hunter freely and easily in front of Takuma, Seiren and Akane crept into his mind and he cringe inwardly with horror. Then he sighed inwardly, after all what's done cannot be undone. He will just have to bear it in mind, not to do that again in front of the others. At least, Akane's family and Takuma could be considered as one too, if he were to take into account of the former's relations with his future adopted daughter. As for Seiren, he knew the former would not go around telling people of his private information.

---

While Kaname Kuran was busy sorting out his feelings towards the two guardians of the academy, one of them was combing the town area for a particular 'Level E' which the former had been told to eliminate. Yuuki Cross, on the other hand, was busy following after her patroling partner from behind for she found the fellow guardian's behavior strangely secretive for the day.

Akane, meanwhile, had been pulled into town by Rima to join Shiki and herself for a last minute advertisement shoot. One of the models who was involved in the shoot with them had taken on an urgent leave of absence and after discussing with their manager, they had decided to rope Akane in at the very last minute. Initially, Akane was reluctant but after being subjected to the lengthy nagging session from her over-enthusiastic cousin, she had caved and given in.

They were on their way out when Takuma received a call from the Vampire Council for them to deal with a 'Level E' that was creating havoc in town, claiming that the council does not want to let the association 'win' again, this time around. Since Rima and Shiki were on their way out, Takuma had told them to take care of the matter before heading for their advertisement shoot.

"Pull over!" Akane had shouted at the driver upon their arrival at the site, before opening the car door on her side without waiting for the driver to brake the car fully. Rima and Shiki, on the other hand, stepped out of the car only after they were certain that the car had stopped fully.

Akane ignored the two nobles following her from behind and merely allowed her keen hunter's senses to lead her to where the 'Level E' was hiding. The reason why she had been so enthusiastic about the hunting mission, was because she thought she had sensed Zero around the vicinity as well.

"A-re? Shiki-senpai, Touya-senpai? What are the two of you doing here? "

"That did it! I've to hurry now, if you are here ... Then certainly, Zero must be around too. Damn it! How could he took up the mission before he was fed himself?! " Akane cursed under her breath as she took off towards the direction where she was certain that she had sensed the silver-haired hunter's presence.

"Huh? Akane?! Why are you here too? " Yuuki asked, only to be brush aside by the frantic girl whom told her to ask the two nobles instead.

However, before Yuuki could brought up her doubt to the two night-class members, Shiki had already pushed her behind as he launched an attack towards the 'Level E' that nearly sneaked up for an attack from behind the female guardian. The attack had send the 'Level E' back into hiding again, and not wanting to be burn by the sun-rays. Shiki did not pursued after the escaped 'Level E', even while the sun in winter was not exactly scorching hot. It would still hurt the skin and eyes of the vampires.

Only Kaname and Takuma could endure being out in the sun without the use of an umbrella in winter, among the higher ranking vampires that Shiki had gotten to know over the years. The ex-humans, on the other hand, could move about in the sun freely and probably that was due to their human genetics in them that allows them to do so.

Meanwhile, Akane was half-way up the stairs of that abandoned building which the 'Level E' had used as a temporary hiding place when she met up with the silver-haired hunter whom was coming down in pursuit of the escaped vampire.

"Akane?! What are you doing here? "

"What else?! I've to feed you, isn't it?! "

"Huh? Now?! " Zero stared, uncomprehendingly as he regarded the vampire girl with his lilac eyes.

Akane rolled her eyes and said, "No ... I'm not telling you to bite me here, but I'm still here to feed you. " With that said, the girl pull out a small bottle about the size of a cough syrup and handed it to Zero.

"Is this what I think it is, again? "

"Yes, its' blood in there but not Ichijo's this time. They are from me ... Kaname-sama forbid me to let you drink from me directly, and so I had to resort to using this method. Anyway, I find this method more convenient too. At least, I need not go in search for you all the time now ... I can just give you a new bottle every week in class and nobody would suspect a thing, after all ... there are indeed medication syrup that's red in color. " Akane responded, before commenting.

"I think you'd best drink it now, then you can proceed on to save Yuuki. I could sense her distress from here, in the meantime, I'll go and find that unfortunate hostage of that 'Level E' from before. "

Upon Akane's mention of Yuuki's name, Zero's eyes widen in surprise. "What?! You mean Yuuki's out there?! "

"Yeah, I think she thought you are running away from home or something, that's why she made it a point to follow you when you sneak out from school ... "

Zero fought the urge to roll his eyes at how Yuuki had allowed her imagination to run wild on its own, running away from home was the very last thing on his mind at this point of time. Moreover, it was not as if there has been anything happening that might resulted in his inclination to react in that manner. Nonetheless, he wasted no time in emptying the bottle of blood from Akane before returning the empty bottle to the stupefied girl and continue his way down the stairs.

"Did he just drink those blood willingly, or was I imagining things? " Akane murmured to herself as she stared at the now emptied bottle with disbelieving eyes.

With a shake of her head, she continued on her journey upstairs deciding not to dwell too much on Zero's lack of protest against the idea of ingesting blood. Perhaps, the former was just too 'hungry' for blood that he no longer cared to protest when the blood was offered to him for his consumption.

Zero, on the other hand, had accepted the offered blood that easily because he knew fighting against his desire for flesh blood would not make his life any easier, in fact his resisting against the idea would only worsen it. In other words, he was just going along with what Akane had told him earlier and since there was no one else around to witness his 'feeding session' with the sheer exception of themselves, then why bother resisting it since he will still ended up ingesting them, either willingly or Akane would resorted to forcing it down his throat again.

Not wanting to have a repeat of the previous episode whereby the girl had force-fed him with the blood, he would rather drink them willingly, this time around. After all, who knew what the pureblood would do if he had allowed himself to be force-fed by Akane again.

"Damn, why am I thinking about him again?! " Zero muttered to himself as he fired a shot at the 'Level E' that was holding Yuuki in a death grip.

"Let go of her, and do not ever touch her again! " Zero warned, as he fired yet another shot towards the 'Level E' and once he noticed that the vampire's grip on Yuuki had loosen somewhat. He pulled the girl away to safety before ending the life of the 'Level E' with a final blast through the head of the vampire.

Once settled, he shifted his attention back towards Yuuki and threw the girl a look of annoyance as he addressed the former. "Yuuki, I hoped you have a very good reason to explain about your presence here ... "

"Zero, I know I shouldn't be following you ... but I was worried. You never even made it a point to tell me what's on your mind these days, anymore! " Yuuki tried to justify her actions by blaming them on Zero's lack of insight to let her in on what has been going on with his life, over the past few weeks.

"I wasn't aware I had been telling you those things, before. " Zero retaliated, knowing for a fact that he had never inform the former about such information willingly, in prior.

"But you always tell me when I asked you about them, but recently you'll keep me away even when I took the initiative to enquire about them. " Yuuki protested.

"Yuuki, the reason why I've told you in the past was because I cannot stand your constant nagging if I kept those information away from you. However, you didn't know what I was back then ... You only knew what the Chairman had told you about my family's demise by the hands of a pureblood. Then when you realized that I'm an ex-human, you started to get uncomfortable around me. Hence, my decision to keep you away from me as much as possible. However, after a while you started to bug me again when you judged that I'm safe enough for you to interact with. Then when you see me drinking from Akane, you freaked out on me. "

"I didn't! " Yuuki tried to protest only to be cut off by the silver-haired hunter, as the former continue to speak his mind. Not caring if he was giving away his identity of being an ex-human in front of the two night-class members, but then again considering how the twins had turned up and claimed to be his sons with Kuran from the future. He was certain that with the intelligence of the night-class members, they would bound to figure things out on their own, soon enough.

"Well, you might claimed differently now but your behavior back when Kuran and yourself chanced upon the sight of me drinking off from Akane's neck says things differently though. Then Akane and I had come to the same conclusion to keep the possibility of my becoming a 'Level E' from you, you have to resort to going to the night-class members for answers. Knowing that you'll panicked if you were to witness how crazy one would get after their ultimate fall to the status of a 'Level E', I had kept my reasons for leaving the academy grounds from you this afternoon. Still, you had ended up following me despite the Chairman's advices for you to remain on campus. "

By this point of time, Yuuki was completely silent. Everything that Zero said had made sense, and even while she knew Zero was on the verge of blowing up at her actions. The former had managed to restrain himself from doing so, and instead had opted to 'lecture' her nicely and calmly without resorting to the use of any forms of harsh language.

"I hate to interrupt, but the girl upstairs' still breathing and very much alive. So what should we do about her, Kiryuu? " The voice of Touya Rima broke in, drawing both guardians' attention to herself.

"Check her for any bite marks, it would be drastic if she had been bitten. If there's no visible marks of her being bitten, then call for an ambulance and claimed to say that she had fainted while walking. If there were indeed bite marks being present, notify the vampire council immediately. " It was Akane whom responded, after taking a look at the unconscious girl's identification card.

Upon Akane's words, Zero found his eyes snapping towards the victim in shock. He had been so pre-occupied with the 'Level E' issue and had not bothered to take a good look at the hostage before, and now he was in shock.

"Please tell me ... that's not one of my unknown cousins from my mother's side of the family ... " Zero questioned, despite knowing that it probably was. Otherwise, Akane would not have reacted that solemnly after taking a look at the girl's identification card.

"Fujiwara Shiori, that's the name reflected on her identification card. The clan's big enough to spread over the whole of vampires, humans and hunters society ... its' better to be safe than sorry. So how is it? " Akane asked, as she turned towards Rima's direction.

"No bite marks have been spotted yet, so I'll say she's safe. " Rima concluded, after checking all the possible areas where a vampire would mark its' victim.

"Good, then call for an ambulance. Do not remove the memories from her, its' pointless anyway. " Akane added, before replacing the identification card back to the girl's wallet.

---

Some distances away, a certain female was observing the sight through the eyes of a hawk. Giggling girlishly, the girl had commented.

"I've finally found you, my Zero-chan! Aa ... those eyes filled with such depressing sadness, its' still such a wonderful sight to behold. "

"Come, I believed its' time for us to make a trip over to the Cross Academy now. " The female said, directing her words to her loyal follower.

"Yes, Shizuka-sama. I'll inform Maria-sama to get ready for the trip, then. " Ichiru Kiryuu said, as he made a move to leave the room.

Later that evening, Kaien Cross requested for Yuuki to meet him in his study after their dinner.

"Yuuki, I need you to head out front and bring in one of our new transfer student. " Kaien Cross told Yuuki, despite his uneasiness about the whole situation. Still, he had no choice. It was either Zero or Yuuki whom had to go out and meet the new transfer student, but knowing Zero. The former would flipped, so it had to be Yuuki.

After all, the new transfer student was a night-class student and moreover, seemed to be a distant relative to Shizuka Hiou. That was his reason for not sending Zero out there, fearing that his ward might went berserk and resorted to threatening the new student into giving out Shizuka Hiou's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Shizuka whom had taken up residence in her distant relative - Maria Kurenai's body felt something off when Yuuki approached her. The female guardian's blood had smelt too alluring and sweet to be one of human heritage, but still she failed to come up with any possible reasons as to why the blood of Yuuki Cross was so tempting that even she felt like taking a bite for herself, and taste the rich liquid flowing under the girl's skin.

"Oh my ... you looked so delicious. " The awfully sweet sound of Maria Kurenai's voice escaped before she could stopped herself, and inwardly she withheld a cringe at the sound of her relative's voice.

"Maria-chan! Those words are not to be spoken behind the walls of this academy. " The Chairman's voice cuts in warningly, reminding her of the pacifism ideals that was in place on school grounds.

"Oh, I apologized for my slip of tongue. I'd forgotten about it. " Shizuka responded, using the annoyingly sweet voice of her distant relative while trying her hardest not to snort at the Chairman's ideals and to frown at the sound of her 'unusual' voice.

"It's alright, just remember to refrain from saying those things again. Now, Yuuki please show Maria-chan to where the night-class are having their lessons. " Kaien Cross instructed, making a mental note to watch the new night-class member closely. There was something in the girl's aura that kept nagging at him, but he had no idea why it was bothering him this much when he could sensed no hostility from the girl.

"Chairman, I was wondering if I could be granted special permission to make use of the abandoned dormitory building which used to belong to the teachers in this school as a temporary living quarters for myself. As you know, I've been living in the mountain areas all these while and does not really react well when I'm in a crowd. So ... " Shizuka started, trying to sound as pitiful and uncertain as possible.

"Ah ... I can see where you're coming from. Well then, you have my permission to do so but its' only for a week. Within this week, you'll have to get yourself accustomed to spending time in the crowd. After all, that's one of the rule which the night-class members in this school have to obey in order to continue staying on academy grounds. " Kaien Cross responded, acting cheerful and optimistic again.

"Thank you, Sir. I appreciated the gesture of consideration. " Maria Kurenai thanked him, before moving to join the awaiting Yuuki on the other side of the door.

Inwardly, Shizuka was smirking to herself. One week, that's more than enough time to achieve her ultimate aim in coming to the academy. 'Oh ... Zero, I wonder how you'll react to my presence this time around. '

~to be continued~

Date started: 25/05/09

Date completed: 26/05/09

Date edited: 26/05/09


	17. Chapter 17

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Shizuka finally appeared XD What will happen now?! Yes, thanks for all the wonderful reviews that keeps me going. I'll really try to keep everyone in character, though sometime I might just slip up ^^;; if I did, let me know. So that I can do something about it in the next chapter ... try and pull them back or something ^^;; Now then, without further ado ... I'll bring you the next Chapter - Enjoy!

---

Chapter 17 - Shizuka Hiou, Part 1

"Damn!" Zero cursed as he sat up in bed, drenched in perspiration. A quick glance at the clock on his study desk informed him that he still had another two hours to go before he needs to get himself ready for school. Why am I dreaming about that woman again?!

The silver-haired guardian had been woken from his slumber due to a recurring night-mare of his, over the years. The night-mare was as usual about how the pureblood Shizuka had wiped his family out, it was a night-mare which had haunted him for years since his family's demise. However, the night-mare had stopped visiting him in his dreams for a little while over the past year. Then, why was he dreaming about it again, now?

At the same time, within the walls of the Moon Dormitory - Kaname Kuran and his friend Takuma Ichijo were discussing about the new transfer student, Maria Kurenai.

"Kaname? So what do you think we should do with the new transfer student?"

"Since you're so concern about the issue, why don't you take up the responsibility of 'taking care' of her." Kaname Kuran responded, as he replaced a book which he had been reading earlier on back onto the book shelves within the library of the Moon Dormitory.

"Eh?! " Takuma's eyes widen for a second, before resigning himself to the idea of playing 'baby-sitter' to the mysterious new transfer student.

"So what do you reckon that she would do now? " Takuma questioned, despite knowing that his friend would not tell him anything of importance.

"Whatever she's up to, its' nothing good. That much, I'm certain. " That was the only response, Kaname was willing to supply to his curious friend.

Seeing as the pureblood was not going to reveal anything else to him, Takuma sighed aloud as he excused himself from his pureblood friend's presence.

Meanwhile, Aidou Hanabusa was discussing about the identity of Maria Kurenai with his cousin, Akatsuki Kain. He had no idea why, but he kept on receiving strange vibes from the new transfer girl. Something about the girl's aura seemed fishy to him, and that was the reason why he had gotten his cousin to help him out in researching on the girl's background information.

"Hanabusa, what is it that you want to know about Maria Kurenai? Everything about her record seems fine to me. If this is about her lack of respect in front of Kaname-sama, I'm sure that its' probably due to her lack of interaction with the society that resulted in it. " Akatsuki Kain said, after reading through the records of Maria Kurenai for the umpteen times since he had gotten hold of them.

"Akatsuki, have you ever seen that woman before? " Aidou questioned, his brows furrowing in deep thoughts.

"That woman? "

"Yes, that woman who shared the same pureblood status with our leader, Kaname-sama. The very same person whom disappeared after going insane - the 'Mad Blooming Princess', Shizuka Hiou. " Aidou elaborated for the sake of his lost cousin.

"No, I've never met her before. Rumors has it that she's dead. " Akatsuki responded, before adding. "Anyway, can we drop the discussion about her? Its' unlucky. "

Akane sighed inwardly as she observed the response of every residents within the walls of the Moon Dormitory, it seems like Maria Kurenai's presence affected everyone greatly. The common class vampires were jittery all day long, talking among themselves how creepy the new transfer student had seemed to be. The noble ranking vampires seemed pre-occupied with the issue as well, her own cousin was send to 'watch' over the new girl. Although, Kaname Kuran seemed unaffected on the surface but Akane could sensed that the former had a dark aura around himself too.

Akane was more than willing to bet, only the twins and herself seemed to be at ease with the whole situation. Probably because the twins had no idea what was going on, and she simply just cannot be bothered to deal with such issues anymore. Though, she still made it a point to keep an eye out on the situation lest she ended up getting trapped in the middle of the whole 'storm' without knowing it, herself.

---

Lunch break for the day-class students that afternoon was absolutely eventful for Akane in more sense than one, she had been standing together with Yuuki, Zero and Wakaba Sayori when Yuuki questioned about the excited atmosphere that lingered in the air that day.

"Don't you know? Its' almost time for the annual 'dinner and dance' for the school's founding, in fact, the date for the event had already been fixed and announced on the notice board this morning. " Sayori told Yuuki, calmly.

"Eh?! Really? When is it?!" Yuuki asked, for she had been busy studying and preparing for the upcoming Mathematics test tomorrow that she failed to take notice of any happenings about the school, these few days.

"Its' this upcoming weekend ... " Sayori responded, frowning as she noticed their class representative heading towards them with a dark look.

"Yuuki Cross ... I certainly hope that you have been studying for the upcoming paper, I'm sure that you would have known by now that the class that came up last on the school's ranking chart for the term would have to help the school committee in the overall preparations for the 'dinner & dance' event. Our class have been unfortunate enough to land in that position last year, and I certainly hoped that this year we would not have a repeat of the last year's event." The class representative said, gloomily as he regarded Yuuki with dark aura emitting off his body.

Yuuki froze as she cringed inwardly at the possible reactions of the class representative, if she were to flunk the test again. Then again, its' not as if she did not made it a point to study. The thing is, she did try her best to study but for some reasons she always have a tendency to blank out during the examinations period. That was the reason why she had always flunked her papers, sometimes she wished she had the brain of her patrolling partner. For Zero always seemed to be able to pass his exams, despite the fact that he was always absent from class.

"Yori-chan, what should I do?! " Yuuki wailed in desperation, as the class representative stalked off in a dark mood.

"... I don't know, why don't you tell the Chairman to get you a tutor or something? " Sayori tried to calm the nervous girl down, as she started giving out random suggestions to her distressed friend.

"Zero ...? Zero!? Are you listening to me?! " Yuuki waved her hand in front of the silver-haired guardian, drawing the former's attention to herself.

"Yes? " Zero responded, distractedly.

However, before Yuuki could get another word out. The fangirls around them started yelling out in excitement again. Then one of them called out towards Akane, and said.

"Hey, Kiryuu! Your boyfriend is chasing after another girl! "

"What the hell are you talking about? " Zero was about to reply when he realized that the person was actually directing their words towards Akane instead of him, upon noticing the figure of Takuma Ichijo running after the new student of the night-class - Maria Kurenai. For a while, he thought he had sensed the presence of Shizuka Hiou around before the feeling disappeared altogether.

'Am I hallucinating or did I really sensed her, just now?' Zero frowned, as he thought inwardly to himself.

"... " Akane rolled her eyes at the fan girls whom seemed to have officially classify her cousin as her potential boyfriend on campus, then again, she supposed it cannot be helped.

After all, she had no desire to clarify her actual relationship with the green-eyed blond vampire in public. For the whole situation is already complicated enough, with her going by the identity of Zero's cousin here and if she were to claim Takuma as her cousin at the same time. Then people are bound to come down with the misunderstanding that Zero and Takuma were relatives, and that would create a whole lot of troubles for both Takuma and Zero.

Just then Aidou Hanabusa came by and decided to fool around by giving Yuuki a hug from behind, that managed to divert the day-class girls' attention away from Takuma whom was still going after Maria who seemed to have the idea in mind to pay the cafeteria a visit in the broad daylight.

"Aidou, I would like to have a word with you in private. " Zero interrupted, still feeling somewhat disturbed by the presence of Maria Kurenai.

Aidou Hanabusa looked over to the silver-haired hunter as he nodded in response, "Good. I have something that I wish to clarify with you as well. "

"Well then, I'm going back to the classroom first." Akane announced, ignoring Yuuki's pleading expression as she departed from the site without a backward glance towards the two guardian's direction. She knew the moment 'Idol-senpai' leave the area with Zero in tow, the fan girls are going to chase after Yuuki and she had no intention of being caught in between Yuuki and the fan-girls.

---

Later that evening, Zero had been passing by the Chairman's study when he was called in by the former. Kaien Cross had been coaching his adopted daughter, Yuuki in her studies for some time now, but he actually had some pressing matters' awaiting for his attention back in his office. Therefore, upon catching sight of his ward, Kaien Cross had called for the latter's attention.

"Zero, do you mind teaching Yuuki for a while? I had something urgent which I need to attend back at the school office ... " Kaien Cross started, but upon noticing the dark look on his ward's features. He added. "Well ... if you don't want to, its' alright. I can always get Akane ... "

Zero sighed, knowing that there would be no way he could have wriggled himself out from the tutoring position. Heading towards where Yuuki was situated, Zero placed his uniform jacket aside as he reached for Yuuki's assignment, going over the questions one by one. Throughout the session, he had one of his hand placed by the side of his neck. It seems like the spot where Shizuka had bitten him in prior, had been pulsing ever since that particular morning when he had been awakened by the night-mare.

"Zero, are you alright? " Yuuki asked, hesitantly not knowing if her friend would take offense at her words or not.

"I'm fine. Come on, let's get these things over and done with. " Zero responded, changing the subject swiftly as he gestured to the number of questions which Yuuki had answered wrongly on the exercise book.

Yuuki sighed inwardly, realizing that Zero was probably changing the subject to avoid her previous inquiry about his welfare. It seems like the distance between them had suddenly grown a mile apart, and Yuuki does not like the idea at all. Still, if she attempted to do anything on her own and without consulting Zero in advance, her friend would 'flip'. That much, she knew. With that, she shifted her attention back to the questions on her exercise book and frowned as Zero tried his best to explain to her the differences between the four different algebraic equations, and when they should be used in the questions of the revision exercise.

"That would be all, and please try to remember them and keep them in mind until the paper's over. I'll be going now. " Zero said, as he made a move to stand and leave the room.

Yuuki nodded, not knowing to respond. Still, only a minute had passes by before she allowed her curiosity about Zero's condition to lead her down the same path which her friend had took, after the former's departure. She followed Zero from behind quietly, all the while until she reaches the more isolated areas of the school. An area that was usually used only in formal functions. Otherwise, it would be practically abandoned by the majority of the school's population.

It was there which she heard the disturbing words coming from the new transfer student of the night-class, and directed towards her friend. She had been about to take a step forward, bringing a stop to the inevitable confrontation between Zero and Maria Kurenai when she felt someone pulling her back. Although the thought of struggling did crossed her mind in prior, she did not have a chance to act upon them as she found herself losing consciousness, soon after.

The person whom had rendered her unconscious was none other than Kaname Kuran, himself. Despite his own worry about the silver-haired hunter's plight, Yuuki was just as important to him as the hunter. Therefore, he could not and would not simply allowed Yuuki to put herself into danger, out of her concern of Zero's situation. He knew Zero would be able to handle himself just fine, and if he were to intervene between what goes on between Maria or rather Shizuka, and Zero. Things would get very complicated, and that was the very thing he had hoped to be able to avoid - at least, for now.

Meanwhile, Zero was distracted from his fight with Shizuka when he thought he had heard Yuuki calling out for him. That moment of distraction costs him greatly, for the loss of blood resulted in the coming back of his blood-lust again. Thankfully, the previous injury which he had managed to inflict upon the body of Maria Kurenai was doing a good job at distracting Shizuka from their fight as well. Thus the fight between them was forced to a stop, as Shizuka retreated for the time-being.

Meanwhile, two figures watched the scene enfolded in front of their eyes in silence. Neither saying a word to the other, both figures were females and dressed in the unmistakable black day-class uniforms of the academy. One turned on her heels and exited from the area without a word, whereas the other stepped forth into the light and attended to the fallen figure of Zero Kiryuu as soon as Maria Kurenai left the site with her silent bodyguard in tow.

---

Wakaba Sayori was seated up in bed as she observed the unconscious and sleeping figure of her room-mate, Yuuki Cross in silence. Looks like the pureblood prince of the Kuran clan had came by while she was out, and perhaps it was time for her to prepare herself mentally for the possible late-night visitors that she might have, over the next few days.

Sensing a stir in her unconscious friend, Sayori hurried to hide herself under the cover of the blanket as she pretended to sleep. Thankfully, Yuuki was only awake for a few minutes before falling back asleep again. This time around, Sayori allowed herself to be lull to bed by the sound of her friend's even breathing. No point dwelling about what had yet to happen, she would think of a possible explanation about her absence tonight if the pureblood prince did send someone over to inquire her on the subject.

In the meantime, Akane sighed as she approached the silver-haired hunter slowly but determinedly. Zero tensed when he sensed a vampire approaching him, but relaxed visibly when he realized that the approaching vampire was his future grand-niece, Akane.

"Come on, its' time for you to feed. Although, Kaname's not going to be happy about you drinking off from me directly ... but there's no other options available tonight. I didn't have the ready bottle of blood on me, this evening. " Akane said, purposely speaking aloud so that the approaching figure of Kaname Kuran could hear her warning in advance.

Kaname, though disliking the idea of Akane feeding Zero directly had no choice but to relent at Akane's words. After all, despite his desire to feed Zero with his own blood. He knew, it would not be wise at this point of time. Since the spilling of his blood would no doubt, send the whole night-class into a craze-like mode and he might even risk alerting Shizuka Hiou of his growing feelings for the silver-haired guardian.

Just then, a shuffle of footsteps were heard echoing down the abandoned hall-ways before it came to an abrupt stop in front of the pureblood. Kaname sighed inwardly, as he took in the similar looks of anxiety on the twins' features and knew instantly that the twins had disregarded his orders for them to stay within the walls of the Moon Dormitory out of their concern for Zero.

"Father, I tried stopping Akira. I really did, but he won't listen ... " Subaru started to explain himself, sounding distressed of the whole situation.

Kaname took one look at Akira's expression and nodded in response. "I know."

Turning towards Akira, Kaname addressed the younger boy and said. "Akira, get your emotions under control now. I'm sure you do not want the whole school to collapse. It would upset your Daddy if that were to occur. "

Akira blanched as he tried to suppress the amount of rage that was pulsing in his veins upon the sight of his 'Daddy' being injured.

"Is that Akira and Subaru?" Zero asked, still sounding a little weak from the blood loss and slightly disoriented after drinking from Akane.

"Daddy!" Two similar wails of anxiety reaches their hearing range, as the two boys hurried over to kneel by the side of the injured silver-haired hunter before Akane could even respond to the former's query.

Zero grimaced slightly upon the sudden weight of the two boys clinging on to him, and he nearly throw the infuriating pureblood a look of gratitude when the former removed the two boys from his injured body forcefully.

"Boys, calm down ... I'm fine, just injured. I'll survived, so do stop with that depressing look alright? " Zero told the distressed twins, before he struggled to get himself into a standing position as he attempted to convince the boys that he would be fine.

The boys though not entirely convinced, managed a nod at their Daddy's words before giving in to their Father's request for them to return to the Moon Dormitory with Akane. As soon as the twins' had their back turned against Zero, the silver-haired guardian nearly stumbled and fell and if it was not for the sudden support of the pureblood's arms around himself. Zero might have lose his ability to stand up straight, altogether.

"You can let go of me now, Kuran. " Zero started, as soon as he regained control of his body actions.

"No. Not yet, you're still disoriented. Your body need time to repair itself, and until I'm certain that you are able to stand on your own. I will not relinquished my hold on you. " Kaname responded, his tone firm leaving the fellow hunter no room for objections.

Realizing that the pureblood would not be letting go of him anytime soon, Zero sighed inwardly as he resigned himself to the idea of being supported by the former as they made their way back to the Chairman's living quarters. He would have to spend the night at the Chairman's living quarters, since he knew by now that making his way back to his dormitory room would not be a possible option due to his injury. Especially, since his injury was a result from being slash by a sword. That would be hard to explain, as a typical human-being would not be able to survive such a damaging wound without going to the hospital.

---

The next morning, Zero ended up having to skip through the whole period of the examination as his body was still regenerating itself to recover from the damage which Shizuka had did to him, the night before. Yuuki, on the other hand, kept getting the feeling that she had forgotten something that was of utmost importance and that inevitably resulted in her daze-like manner throughout the whole examination time period.

No doubt, that caused the whole class average results to fall significantly and thus causing the class representative to stare at Yuuki all day long. After all, Yuuki was the main culprit that resulted in their class being ranked last among the whole level of the year two students. For it seems like all Yuuki had managed to write on the paper was her own name, the rest of the paper was completely left blank. That was far worst than Zero, whom had simply choose not to turn up for the paper.

Later that evening, Zero woke to find the twins sleeping in a crouching position by the side of his bed. He was about to move them onto his bed so that the boys could slept on more comfortably, when the door leading to his room within the Chairman's living quarters open up to admit the entrance of Kaname Kuran.

Not wanting to wake the twins from their slumber, Zero nodded towards the pureblood as an indication of his acknowledgement of the former's presence. To which, Kaname responded with a nod of his own. Silence reigned, as the two of them just spend their time watching the slumbering figures of their future sons.

"I thought you weren't going to let them out from the Moon Dormitory? " Zero whispered, keeping his voice soft such that he would not risk rousing the twins from their sleep.

"I can't possibly banned them from wanting to visit their other parent, can I? Besides, I doubt they would obeyed my orders after witnessing the degree of your injury last night. They were getting restless, and if I do not allow them to pay you a visit. They are still going to sneak out, either way. So I figured I might as well just bring them over, lest they tried to wander off by themselves without an escort. "

Zero nodded to Kaname's response, as he watched the two boys tried to make themselves comfortable by using his lap as a pillow. He was currently sitting up in bed, Kaname was now standing by the side of his bed after the twins had been moved to a sleeping position on the silver-haired guardian's bed.

"What did you do to Yuuki last night?" Zero finally asked. Although, he wanted to know if Kaname Kuran had known about the identity of Maria Kurenai before the events of last night occurred. He felt that it might be better if he received no answers to that particular question, somehow he had a feeling that the answer which he would received should the pureblood choose to respond, would break his fragile level of trust in the former.

"Nothing drastic, I'd just removed the memories of last night from her mind. It would not do any good for her to get involved in the situation between the two of you. "

"I see ... " Zero responded, his tone vague and slightly miffed. So the pureblood did know, but had not bothered to let him in on the fact. Oddly enough, instead of being angered by the notion he was just irritated.

"I had my suspicions when she first arrived, but I didn't think it wise to act upon the situation then. For I need evidence to support my conjecture, and I need to know her motives for coming here before I can do anything else. "

"Kuran, Shut Up! The twins are waking, I do not want them to be involved in the situation either. Besides, I didn't really ask you to explain your reasoning to me, did I? " Zero whispered harshly, throwing a glare towards the dark-haired pureblood vampire whose presence was starting to irritate him now.

Just then Subaru spoke hesitantly, and tentatively. "Daddy? Are you fighting with Father again?"

"... No, Subaru. We weren't fighting, he's just being his usual annoying self. " Zero told the boy calmly, as he tried to ignore the gaze of intense from the pureblood that was now boring a hole through the back of his head.

"Daddy, are you feeling alright now? " Akira then spoke up, opting to ignore his Father's existence in the room by concentrating his attention solely on the pale figure sitting on the bed.

Zero patted both boys on the head fondly, before assuring them. "Yes, I'm fine now. The wound's fading and healing nicely, so the two of you can stop worrying now. Daddy will be as good as new, in another day's time - alright? "

Both boys nodded, heaving a sigh of relief before they finally turned towards the awaiting pureblood and asked. "Father, can we stay here tonight?"

Kaname's eyebrow twitched, before responding. "No, your Daddy still need his rest tonight. If the two of you are around, he won't be able to rest properly. "

Zero threw the former a look of annoyance, but did not object to the pureblood's words. He supposed he did need some time to himself, either to rest or to sort out his thoughts.

---

The night of the 'dinner & dance' arrived, and two days had passes by since his previous fight with Maria Kurenai or rather, Shizuka Hiou in Zero's opinion. He had arrived back at his dormitory room only to find a brand new set of formal gents' suit being laid out on his bed and immediately felt his eyebrow twitching upon the sight.

He did not even have to ask around the building to know whom had been in his room earlier, it was quite obvious from the way his fellow dormitory mates had been staring at him upon his return from the school.

"Damn Kuran! If he thinks that I'll be wearing that to the function, then he's sorely mistaken." Zero cursed aloud, to no one in particular before throwing a glare of venom towards the innocent set of gents' suit that was lying on his bed waiting to be tried on.

At the same point of time, over at the girls dormitory building. Wakaba Sayori accepted the box of evening gown from the hands of Kaname Kuran, with an inward sigh. It seems like every time she attempted to visit somewhere within the school grounds, she would ended up being force to interact with the night-class members. Ever since the talk she had with a certain blue-eyed blond vampire two night ago when the former trapped her down within the school building, while she was doing some last minute preparation for the school's event.

This time around, the president of the Moon Dormitory had trapped her down while she was on her way to the washroom with the request for her to deliver the said piece of garment to her friend, Yuuki.

Knocking on the door to their shared dormitory room, Sayori resigned herself to the idea of playing messenger for the pureblood as she spoke up from the doorway.

"Yuuki, are you going to the event dressed in the school uniform? You do know that even backstage helpers are allowed to have a few dance of their own out in the event hall, right?"

"Yori-chan, well ... but the Chairman had entrusted me with the duty of maintaining discipline among students whom took part in the event, just now ... " Yuuki responded, with a helpless shrug of her shoulders at her friend's words.

In return, Sayori just looked at her for a while and said. "Well ... it's up to you, I guess. Anyway, this came for you just now. Kaname-senpai had delivered it over himself. "

"Eh? Kaname-senpai? " Yuuki blinked in surprise, she had thought that the former had already forgotten about her existence recently. After all, ever since the arrival of Akane and the twins, the pureblood had been focusing his attention more on Zero than herself.

When Yuuki finally arrived at the event hall, she was not surprised to find her silver-haired patrolling partner already stationed by the side of the ballroom, conversing with her adopted father.

"Ah ... looks like Yuuki-chan had decided to dress herself up for the event too. Papa is so happy! " The Chairman greeted Yuuki's arrival with his annoying sing-song tone of voice, causing Zero's eyebrow to twitch involuntarily.

"Chairman, do me a favor and shut up! Your voice is grating on my nerves!" Zero gritted out, resisting the urge to strangle the ex-hunter right there and then.

"A-re? Zero, you're dressed up as well? " Yuuki piped up, her eyes brightening up with interest since she had knew her silver-haired friend to be one whom detested the idea of such events. So she was exceptionally curious to know the reason why her friend had made an effort to come for the event, dressed in something else other than the typical black school uniform of the academy.

"It's not by my own choice! I was forced into this particular attire by that crazy father of yours! " Zero gritted out in annoyance, upon the memory of the Chairman knocking on his door only to notice that set of gents' suit lying on his bed untouched and practically forced him into wearing it for the school 'dinner & dance' event. If it was not for the fact that he wanted so much to stop the man from nagging, Zero would very much preferred to wear his own uniform rather than the suit prepared by that infuriating pureblood going by the name of Kaname Kuran.

During which period of time, Shizuka Hiou whom was inhabiting the body of Maria Kurenai was patiently waiting for her chance to strike. She had sent Ichiru to where she had kept her real body hidden, while she remained in one of the empty room situated near the event hall. She knew the female guardian would come and approached her in time, she was certain of that. Rather, the baits which she had used would ensure to lure the girl over to her like how the fishes would be attracted to the bait of the rod.

~to be continued~

Date started: 27/05/09

Date completed: 29/05/09

Date edited: 29/05/09


	18. Chapter 18

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Okay, so now's the time for Part 2. This and the next coming Chapter are bound to be a killer for me, cause the sheer idea of writing them give me a very big headache. Nonetheless, I'll do my best ^^;;

---

Chapter 18 - Shizuka Hiou, Part 2

"Woah ... This must be a miracle. To think that Kiryuu would turn up at this type of event dressed in something else aside from the typical school uniform. Did the sun rise from the west, today? " Someone commented among the crowd, upon their sighting of the male guardian's attire.

This caused a new round of gossip to start traveling around the event hall, Zero Kiryuu, on the other hand still kept his usual poker face as he stood by the side of the event hall. Keeping a watchful eye on the movements of most, if not all of the night-class members. Upon locking eyes with a certain dark-haired pureblood standing near the balcony area of the event hall, Zero wanted very much to die from embarrassment. That particular pureblood was looking at him smugly and he wanted very much to wipe that look off the former's features.

Meanwhile, Kaname was keeping watch of the twins whom refused to stay in the dormitory claiming to say that they would be bored with everyone out for the dance event. Having no other available options on hand, Kaname had no choice but to agree and relented on the idea of having the twins to tag along for the event. The responsibility and duty of watching out for the twins would be shouldered and shared between Seiren, Akane and himself.

It would be a disaster if the twins were to wander about the event hall by themselves, therefore, it was generally agreed between Akane and himself that one of them should remain behind on the balcony with them. Lest the twins decided to wander off by themselves, which they have a tendency to attempt on regular basis. Seeing as Kaname, himself does not really enjoy socializing, he had offered to be the one keeping watch on the twins while Akane head out to join the crowd in having fun.

"Father? Can we go and find Daddy? " Akira asked, looking up at him with one of those pleading 'puppy dog' eyes that would usually work on the adults.

Unfortunately, Kaname was not among those kind of people whom would gave in to Akira's request that easily. Instead, he told the boy patiently.

"No, Akira. You can't go and bother your Daddy yet. He's 'working' now, but I'm sure he would come over and visit the two of you later."

With a dejected look on his face, Akira nodded unwillingly to his father's words. Still, it did not stop Akira from staring longingly at his favorite parent that was all the way across on the other end of the event hall.

Akane, whom had her eyes trained upon Akira for most if not all of the time sighed inwardly with resignation as she headed towards the immobile figure of the silver-haired guardian.

"Zero, care to show your face over at the balcony for a minute? The twins are asking for your presence ... " Akane added the last bit, when she noticed the look of annoyance on Zero's features upon the mention of the balcony.

"... " Upon Akane's mention of the twins wanting to see him, Zero sighed inwardly as he approached the area of the balcony grudgingly. He was aware of the many eyes upon him, as he approached where the pureblood had stood and it was starting to annoy him. Nonetheless, he continued on his way over while trying his hardest to ignore the curious eyes that were focused on him since he started moving into the crowd.

The twins brightened up almost immediately upon catching sight of the approaching figure of Zero, Akira literally bounced over and tackled the silver-haired teen as he stepped onto the ground of the balcony area.

"Daddy!" Akira greeted enthusiastically, but luckily the music track for the dance would be able to hide the boy's excited greeting from the majority of the dance participants. It would not, however, escaped from the keen hearing of the vampires out there. Still, there would not be any harm done since Zero was almost certain that everyone among the night-class had already knew of his role in the twins' life. After all, they did see him on more than one occasions around the vicinity of the Moon Dormitory with either one of the twins attached to his side.

"Akira, calm down. Don't get too excited ... " Zero reminded, as he set the boy down on the ground again.

"Daddy." Subaru's quiet voice greeted him, just as he set Akira down on the ground.

"Subaru. How are you today?" Zero greeted back, his tone even as he looked down at the boy fondly.

Subaru allowed a small smile to grace his lips as he responded. "I'm fine, Daddy. I missed seeing you though ... You haven't been coming around to visit us, these days. "

Upon the boy's words, Zero sighed as he responded. "I apologized, Subaru. However, I was pre-occupied with other matters on hand. I promised though, I'll try to come around for a visit as often as possible. Is that alright with you? "

Subaru nodded obediently, before Akira protested. "Hey, what about me?! Daddy?! Aren't you going to visit me too? "

"... Akira, of course I'll be visiting you as well. Don't you know that by now? " Zero chided the boy, good-naturedly.

Akira said nothing but grinned cheekily in response, while Subaru just shakes his head at his twin's antics. Somehow, Akira just enjoyed the idea of being the center of attraction.

---

"A-no ... Kain-senpai, did you know where's Kaname-senpai?" Yuuki Cross asked, she had been looking around the whole event hall for signs of the resident pureblood for quite some time now. The idea of checking outdoors or even the balcony area had not crossed her mind once, as she had no idea of the pureblood's dislike for events that involved socializing with the crowd.

"I think he's over at the balcony ... " Akatsuki Kain responded, matter-of-factly.

"Thank you, Kain-Senpai. " Yuuki said, as she started towards the direction of the balcony area.

Meanwhile, Akatsuki caught sight of the mild glare which Ruka had directed his way and asked with skepticism. "Why? Is there a problem with me telling her where Kaname-sama's at? "

Ruka 'hmph-ed' and turned away from her childhood friend, before she froze upon the sight of a day-class male student approaching her.

"A-no ... Ruka-san, may I have the honor of inviting you to a dance? " The new-comer was none other than the class representative of Yuuki's class.

Akatsuki took in the look of distaste on his childhood friend's features before addressing the former, "Why are you ignoring him? He's kind of pitiful to be left hanging there, you know? "

Ruka threw him a glare and said, "You know as much as I do that I'll never dance with strangers!"

"Well, if you insist. " Akatsuki shrugged, before inviting Ruka out to the dance-floor with him which Ruka accepted readily.

In the meantime, Yuuki arrived at the balcony to find Zero talking with the twins while Kaname looked out at the scenery outside peacefully.

"Kaname-senpai? " Yuuki's voice jarred the pureblood out from his thoughts, as he turned to regard the girl with a smile.

"Yuuki." Kaname greeted, fondly causing a certain silver-haired hunter to throw him a look of annoyance.

"Zero, am I interrupting anything? " Yuuki asked, flickering her eyes hesitantly between Kaname and Zero.

"No, we're fine. Just busy ignoring one another ... " Zero responded, shortly.

To which, Kaname throw the silver-haired guardian a look of annoyance before shifting his attention back to the girl standing in front of him.

"Ah ... anyway, I'm here to thank Kaname-senpai for the dress. " Yuuki said, as she bowed to the pureblood with gratitude.

Upon Yuuki's statement, Zero's eyes widen for a minute as he regarded the pureblood with an unreadable gaze before looking away from the former. Inwardly, he was feeling somewhat unhappy about the pureblood's decision to give both Yuuki and him a gown, and suit respectively that belongs to the work of the same designer, same color schemes and the same outlet for the same event.

As though sensing his unhappiness, Subaru glanced up at him questioningly. "Daddy?"

"I'm fine, don't worry. Just remembered some unhappy memories ... " Zero responded, careful to keep his annoyance towards the pureblood hidden from the twins' detection.

"Yuuki, can I have this dance with you? " Kaname started, holding his hand out for Yuuki as he invited the girl for a dance.

Meanwhile, Yuuki froze as her eyes flickered immediately to where her silver-haired friend stood. Somehow, she was hesitant in accepting the invitation for the dance with her silver-haired patrolling partner around. Zero, on the other hand, frowned when he noticed both Kaname and Yuuki's eyes upon him and he found himself snapping at them in response.

"Why the hell are the two of you looking at me?! Surely, neither of you would required my permission to dance with one another, right? "

"True, we don't really need your permission to dance with each other. " Kaname said, smoothly as he shifted his eyes away from the silver-haired hunter and back onto Yuuki.

Yuuki's eyes widen as she suddenly felt Kaname pulling her into a dance of their own, that totally ignored the tempo of the music being played by the orchestra back inside the event hall. Meanwhile, Zero tried his best to ignore the dancing duo by averting his eyes elsewhere.

It was then that he felt it again, the faint pulsing around the area where Shizuka had bitten him before. Almost immediately, his hand reached up to cover that particular area of his neck. It was a faint movement, but still it failed to escape from the keen sight of Kaname Kuran and ironically, Yuuki had caught sight of it as well. That was why she had stepped back and pulled away from the pureblood abruptly, as she suddenly recalled Maria Kurenai's words to her earlier in the day.

Shooting another glance towards Zero's direction, Yuuki turned on her heels and fled from the event hall. Her sudden desire to flee from the balcony startled Zero out from his reverie, as he hurriedly flickered his eyes towards the pureblood. The frown and dark expression which Kaname was displaying caught Zero off-guard for a minute, as Zero wondered about the possibility of him doing anything that displeased the pureblood greatly.

"Why are you still standing here? Aren't you supposed to run after her? Isn't it your responsibility to protect her from dangers? " Kaname prompted, sounding very much irritated at the silver-haired hunter's lack of reactions.

"... " Zero stared at the pureblood wordlessly, before turning away from Kaname looking peeved as he went after the direction where Yuuki was last seen heading for.

Kaname, on the other hand, was a mess. Rather, his moods were so messed up that he had no idea how to react around the silver-haired guardian and Yuuki anymore. Granted, he admit he had made the mistake of giving both Zero and Yuuki clothes as a gift from the same designer's store, and picking something that fell into the same color ranges too. It would probably make Zero feel as though, he had only bought the suit for the former out of convenience while shopping for Yuuki.

The gift was supposed to serve as an apology of sorts for not warning the silver-haired hunter of the possibility that Shizuka Hiou had taken up residence in the body of Maria Kurenai, before. Yet, he had screwed it up and increased the annoyance level of the hunter instead of toning it down. Then, he made the mistake of inviting Yuuki to a dance in front of Zero and the twins.

He knew that he could jolly well dance with anyone as he deemed fit, without the need to even seek permission from the silver-haired hunter. Still, for some odd reason he felt it inclined to receive some form of assurance from the hunter that his intentions were understood and that was why he had glanced over at the silver-haired hunter, in the first place. However, he was not expecting Yuuki to be looking at Zero too and somehow the idea of someone else looking towards the silver-haired hunter's direction annoyed him, greatly.

Even if the person whom glanced at the silver-haired hunter just happened to be his beloved sister, it still did not change the fact that it bothered him. That was perhaps why he had tried to put as much distance between Yuuki and Zero, when he started the dance with the girl.

Zero though, was another matter entirely. The pureblood's attitude over the past few days confused him, one moment the former was showing him care and concern; the next minute the pureblood might be throwing him glares and dark look. So just what is it exactly that Kaname Kuran wanted from him?

Taking today's event as an example, the pureblood had seemed smug when he showed up at the event wearing the suit which the former had given him earlier that evening. Then it gave way to annoyance when he busied himself with the twins instead of paying the elder pureblood any attention. When Yuuki showed up in front of them, Kuran decided to forget all about his existence and just invited Yuuki to a dance. Somehow, the sight of Kaname Kuran inviting Yuuki for a dance irritates him more than the issue of the former giving both Yuuki and himself, clothes for the night's event.

After which, the pureblood seemed to have suddenly remembered his existence and turned inquiring eyes upon him as though the former was trying to gain permission from him to dance with Yuuki. That unnerved him, and added on to Yuuki's own eyes upon him. He snapped. Then Kuran was suddenly annoyed and promptly drag Yuuki off into a dance. Half-way through the dance, as Yuuki started to pull away from him. Kuran's level of annoyance increased, and the former was lecturing him on his supposed 'responsibilities' to look after Yuuki's welfare.

That aggravate his growing irritation towards the pureblood, and for a moment he considered reminding the former of the fact that Yuuki's not only his responsibility but Kuran's as well. After all, Yuuki was supposed to be the sister and fiancee of the pureblood, isn't that so? Then why is it his responsibility to look after and ensure the safety of Yuuki then? Nonetheless, despite his aggravating thoughts on the situation; he did not snapped. Instead, he remained solemn as he went after the fleeing girl dutifully.

---

During which period of time whereby Kaname was busy sorting out his thoughts, he did not noticed the elder twin - Subaru sneaking off after the departing Zero by himself. Akane, on the other hand, did noticed and promptly excused herself from the company of her random dance partner as she made a move to follow the boy from behind. Kaname though, was only notified of Subaru's absence when Akira tapped him from behind with a look of irritation and said that Subaru had went after their departing 'Daddy' without an escort.

That managed to snap Kaname out from his thoughts and sprang into immediate actions, it was one thing to send Zero out after Yuuki and totally another, when Subaru had it in mind to follow. He had an idea of wherever Yuuki had it in mind to go, it would have something to do with Maria Kurenai or Shizuka Hiou, for that matter. He had seen how Zero had unconsciously reached up to the part of the neck where Shizuka had bitten the former before, and he knew Yuuki had witnessed it too. That was why he had reacted on instincts, by expressing his displeasure towards the silver-haired hunter because he knew Yuuki had totally disregard his efforts at keeping her safe and decided to get herself involved into the dangerous situation between Shizuka and Zero.

"Seiren, look after Akira. Do not let him out of your sight!" Kaname called out to his personal bodyguard, before he made a move to leave the event hall.

Takuma whom caught on to the situation fast enough, decided to create a distraction thus allowing his pureblood friend to leave the area in peace. Akatsuki Kain, on the other hand, was ascorted by his cousin Aidou Hanabusa while on his way to the washroom.

"Hanabusa? What the hell do you want by dragging me over to the abandon dormitory at this hour of time? " Akatsuki frowned, at his cousin's odd display of behavior.

"I had a suspicion in mind that I wish to justify. " That was all Aidou was willing to say, as he led his cousin down another flights of stairs towards the basement of the abandoned dormitory building.

The closer they approached the basement of the building, the colder the air around them was. By the time they reached the end of the stairs, it was practically bone chilling. Luckily, it was nothing that the two vampires could not withstand. After all, Aidou was quite used to the temperature seeing as the use of his power would render the surrounding air about him this cold as well.

"I knew it ... the 'Mad Blooming Princess' was indeed in the school. " Aidou muttered aloud under his breath, while Akatsuki just frowned in bewilderment.

"But if the body is here, then where is her soul?" Akatsuki could not helped but asked.

"Where else, but in the body of Maria Kurenai ... I knew something was fishy with that girl ... "

The vampire duo stared at the frozen body of Shizuka Hiou for a while in silent contemplation before they were distracted by the arrival of Ichiru Kiryuu.

"So what do we do now? Is it really wise to let him leave with that? " Akatsuki questioned, looking down to his cousin for an answer.

"I'll say we notify Kaname-sama. We can't do anything to her, since she's a pureblood and we didn't know what Kaname-sama would had in mind to deal with the situation as well. " Aidou responded, matter-of-factly.

"Well, I guess notifying Kaname-sama of the situation is the only thing that we could do now. " Akatsuki said as he let out a sigh of weariness.

"Yeah, I'll leave that to you then. Akatsuki " Aidou commented, nearly causing the taller vampire to stumble and fell at his words.

"Hanabusa? " Akatsuki questioned, a little baffled by his cousin's behavior.

"Nothing, I just had something else to do now. So would you please go and inform Kaname-sama of what we've found? " Aidou responded, his tone neutral.

"If you insist ... " Akatsuki responded, before turning on his heels and exiting the area.

Aidou Hanabusa waited until he was certain that his cousin was out of hearing range, did he finally spoke aloud and addressing a certain hidden figure in the dark.

"You can come out now, Wakaba Sayori-san. "

"... " Wakaba Sayori was silent as she stepped into the light, staring up at the blue-eyed blond vampire calmly.

"You're lucky that Akatsuki's too distracted to sense you around, and that lackey of Shizuka-sama could not sense you. Else, you would be dead by now. " Aidou Hanabusa muttered aloud, as he looked at the silent female in annoyance.

"... Are you worrying for my safety? If so, don't bother. I know what I'm doing ... " Sayori responded with a frown, before adding placidly. "And while we are on the subject, I honestly doubt that either of them would be able to sense my presence. So far, nobody but you had ever noticed my presence around places where I should not be exploring. "

If you really know what you are doing, then you shouldn't be attempting such dangerous acts! Do you even know what 'we' could be capable of doing to you ? " Aidou questioned, somewhat agitatedly.

"I'm going to assume that you are talking about the 'vampires' in general when you emphasized on the 'we' in your earlier statement? Oh, and to answer your question ... As a matter of fact, I do know what the vampires are capable of doing to a mere human girl like myself. Still, my duty and responsibility comes before anything else and that includes my personal safety." Sayori responded, sounding absolutely weary of the whole conversation. She had no idea why she was even bothering to provide any form of response to the blond vampire, she could have just turned on her heels and walked away in silence.

Perhaps, it was due to the underlying hint of concern that lurks underneath the agitated tone which the blond had used while conversing with her that prompted her to respond to the former's words. Otherwise, with her personality she would simply just turned and walked away from the site as she had never really felt any desires to interact with any members of the night-class.

"Did your presence here today had anything to do with your daily observation of Kiryuu? You mentioned the term 'duty' and 'responsibility' earlier on in your words, what does those duty and responsibility of yours' got to do with Kiryuu? The others might take your constant observation of Kiryuu as a form of personal interest, but I don't think so. " Aidou commented, as he stare at the human girl with intent waiting around to see if he would receive a honest response from the girl, this time around. "That's for me to know, and you to find out. Speaking of which, I would very much appreciate it if you could just stop stalking me on a daily basis. " Sayori added, before departing from the area.

Aidou followed soon after, as he responded to the girl's statement. "Correction, I'm not stalking you. I am only watching you under the specific order of Kaname-sama. "

To which, Sayori merely rolled her eyes at the blond's words before continuing on her way back to the event hall, with every intention to ignore the blond whom was walking behind her. She knew her efforts to talk the blond into dropping the idea of 'watching' her would be in vain, as this had been going on since the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan had discovered her missing from the dormitory building that night when Zero had been injured by Maria Kurenai.

---

Meanwhile, Maria Kurenai was waiting patiently for Yuuki's arrival and Ichiru's return with the physical body of Shizuka Hiou.

"So I see that you've decided to come ... " Maria smirked as she caught sight of the female guardian of the academy.

"Maria, you mentioned that there's a way to stop Zero from falling to the 'Level E'. What is it exactly?! " Yuuki started, trying her hardest to fight against a quiver in her voice.

Yuuki was scared, that much she knew but she refused to give in to her fright. She wanted to help Zero, and she knew that the girl in front of her have the answers to her doubt.

"Oh ... my, you sure are anxious. Aren't you? " Maria commented, smirking sadistically as her keen eyes caught sight of the returning Ichiru.

"I see that they've not been causing any trouble for you, Ichiru ... " Maria commented, upon the return of Ichiru.

"Yes, Shizuka-sama." Ichiru responded, respectfully.

"Well ... I supposed, they are smart enough to know that it wouldn't be wise to go up against a pureblood. After all, they were just nobles ... " Maria smirked, as she turned back to the dumbfounded girl whom was staring at the physical body of Shizuka Hiou in stunned silence.

"That's my real body, and the solution to Zero's problem is actually very simple. " Maria said, as she approached the unconscious figure in Ichiru's arms. Yuuki watched wide-eyed with shock, as the unconscious figure slowly wake before Maria fell unconscious and fell back onto the sofa couch where she was seated upon.

"All Zero need to do was to drink my blood and he would be saved ... " Shizuka Hiou told Yuuki, sadistically before turning to Ichiru and ordered him to bring the unconscious Maria back to the room for rest.

"Your blood? " Yuuki repeated, sounding absolutely bewildered.

"Yes, my blood would be what Zero need to complete his change ... " Shizuka left her sentence hanging there, for she had no intention to let on something which she had kept hidden from everyone's knowledge for years.

"Ichiru, what are you still standing around for? Bring Maria back to the room, now. " Shizuka commanded aloud, when she realized that Ichiru had yet to move from his position behind her.

"Yes, Shizuka-sama. " Ichiru responded, as he stepped forward to pick up the unconscious body of Maria Kurenai before turning on his heels and leave the room.

Yuuki, meanwhile, was caught off-guard when she noticed how similar the side-view of Ichiru had seemed as compared to Zero. However, she did not have much time to figure things out as Shizuka had started to speak again.

"There ... I've told you of the solution to Zero's little problem, so you should give me your blood as a form of repayment. I am, after all, being pursued by many and therefore would required more blood and energy to escape from their pursuit. You give me your blood, and I'll give mine to Zero. Blood for blood. Fair enough for you ? But ... certainly you know what would be the outcome when you allowed a pureblood to bite and mark you? "

Yuuki sighed inwardly as she nodded to the words of Shizuka Hiou, bracing herself for the inevitable that was to come but never did. For Zero had appeared at the very last possible minute, looking breathless from his search for the missing girl. Finally, he had just allowed his instincts to lead him where he deemed it possible to find Yuuki.

His eyes widen upon the sight of Shizuka's fangs hovering near the neck of Yuuki and he reacted immediately by drawing out his gun and directing it towards Shizuka.

"No, Zero ... Don't! " Yuuki yelled aloud as she placed herself in between Zero and Shizuka, apparently her desire to save Zero had stepped into the path of her logic rendering her to do the ridiculous.

"Yuuki, why are you doing this? "

"Because only she can save you from the brink of insanity. " Yuuki shouted out to Zero in distress.

Zero froze for a second, before he repeated Yuuki's words with incredulity. "That woman can save me?!"

"Yes, Zero. Listen to me! The only way for you to stop the fall into 'Level E' was for you to drink her blood! " Yuuki responded, hoping that she had not misunderstood Shizuka's earlier words.

Shizuka Hiou, meanwhile, kept her face expressionless though she nearly felt the urge to bang her head onto the ground. Since when did she said anything about stopping Zero's fall into 'Level E'? Granted, if it had been any normal and usual situation drinking the blood of the master would stop an ex-human from descending into 'Level E' but Zero's situation was hardly considered to be normal, isn't it?

Zero and Ichiru were hardly considered to be 'normal', they had the blood of a 'Fujiwara' flowing through them. In addition, she knew something about them which she doubt they had any idea of, and that was their family's relations to her own family. That makes Zero and Ichiru's situation far from normal, and the reason why her blood would help change Ichiru's body constitution for the better.

When she had first chanced upon Zero and Ichiru, the younger twin had been sickly and frail. Later when she attacked the Kiryuu, she had not wanted to hurt the twins, her sole intention was only to get revenge on the adults. However, Zero had been too stubborn and his words drove her to the brink of insanity. Rage consumed her and she had bitten Zero without her knowing, until it was too late to salvage the situation. Her first intention then was to give her own blood back in return, thus to complete the change but Ichiru's body had chosen that very minute to collapse. After all, the younger twin did seemed to be having a fever prior to her attack.

Added in the fact that the attack on the Kiryuu had finally triggered the association into checking out the situation, knowing that Zero would be able to survive her bite and she could always track him down some time later. She had promptly made a grab for Ichiru and left the area, going into hiding for the next few years that follows. After which she gave Ichiru her own blood so as to improve the boy's health condition, slowly but progressively. However, she kept her distance from the younger twin as well knowing that it would not do her any good to get herself 'attached' to the boy on an emotional level.

Either way, her musing on the past were bring abruptly to a stop as Zero started to speak and glared at her with venom.

"Even if her blood would be my only solution thus far ... I could always drink from her, after I've killed her. Isn't that right, Shizuka?! "

Upon Zero's statement, Yuuki dropped her artemis rod weakly. She had thought she was helping her friend out, it was not until now did she realized that what she was about to do was entirely stupid and that Zero would not have wanted her to do that, by offering herself up to the demented pureblood female.

"Enough, Yuuki. Just stand back, I'll handle it from here ... " Zero told Yuuki patiently, while keeping his eyes warily upon Shizuka Hiou.

---

"Why? Have you allowed yourself to be tame by someone else aside from me? " Shizuka's sudden words jarred Zero out from his conversation with Yuuki.

Zero froze upon Shizuka's words, and sighed inwardly as he felt the distinctive tug around the area where Shizuka had previously bitten him again. Before he knew it, he was restraining Yuuki's movement holding the girl still.

"For your information, I doubt that I've ever been tamed by you. " Zero gritted out in frustration, as Shizuka took another step towards him.

"Oh really? Then why are you acting on my unspoken thoughts? " Shizuka questioned back in return, only to have Zero staring straight back at her.

Zero said nothing, only stared at the approaching pureblood figure in silence. There was no way he could have talked back to the former, especially when Shizuka had her eyes locked into his very own in a staring match. He had no idea why but it seems like every time when Shizuka spoke to him while locking eyes with him, he found himself having trouble expressing himself, be it his thoughts or speech.

Initially, he had thought that it was the power of 'restrain' in which a master would have upon its' servant in the vampire society. However, hours of research on the subject had told him enough that what he experience while in the presence of Shziuka was unlike a typical master-servant bond. Absolute obedience was not guaranteed in his situation, and his mind did not exactly blanked out on him when his actions did exactly what Shizuka had wished for him to do.

Restraining Yuuki with his grasp was an action taken by his own will, despite what Shizuka might thought it out to be. For he feared that if he were to allow Yuuki the ability to act freely, she might ended up pissing Shizuka off. He had no idea why but somehow he knew, Shizuka do not appreciate the idea of being interrupted by others while in the midst of a 'game' with him. The 'game' of 'cat and mouse', he had always referred it as.

When Shizuka had first bitten him, she had told him to 'nurse' his hatred for her so as to come in search of her for revenge at another point of time. True, he did nurse his hatred for her as she had wished it out to be, but he had never once attempted to really comb each and every area of the world just for the sake of finding her. Somehow, deep inside he knew the former would be coming back for him to settle some 'unfinished' issues between them. For four years, he had waited patiently.

The sudden feeling of fangs piercing through the skin area around his neck caused a shudder to run through him, involuntarily. He must have been spacing out, and Shizuka must have taken the time whereby he was taking a trip down his memory to strike by biting and marking him again. If the first time when Shizuka bite him, he had only felt the 'pain'. This time around, it was painful as usual but there was an underlying sense of pleasure as well for he started to wonder if this had been how Akane felt when he fed from her.

"Stop it! That's enough already, why are you doing this to Zero? Why?! " Yuuki's cries of distress startled Zero back into reality, and back into his senses. However, it was the explosion of a window pane within the room that resulted in Shizuka's removal of her fangs from him.

His hold on Yuuki slacken when his senses registered the presence of Akane and Subaru, standing just outside the door. Aura of pure anger was rolling off Subaru in waves, the pupils of Subaru's eyes were bleeding red with fury. The raw energy of nature crackled around the boy's surrounding area, sending various furniture across the room destroying them in the process.

'Shit!' Zero's mind screamed, knowing very much that this indicated the possibility of Subaru's powers going out of control. He wanted to move, but somehow being trapped in the midst of two pissed pureblood, he found himself losing the ability to move from his standing position. With a growl of frustration, he fired a shot from his 'Bloody Rose' to himself so as to let the pain from the gun wound overtake his vampire senses thus enabling him to move towards the boy.

"Subaru! Calm down!" Zero shouted to the boy, as he captured the silver-haired vampire child into a hug as he started to whisper soothing words to the angered pureblood child.

Zero knew it probably would not be wise for him to turn his back on Shizuka, but at this point of time nothing matters more to him, as compared to his distressed son.

Throughout which process, Shizuka was eying the sight with barely concealed interests. "How interesting ... looks like we have with us, a young pureblood ... and he certainly looked delicious enough to eat. "

Upon Shizuka's words, Zero sighed inwardly as he felt Subaru tensing in his embrace again. However, seeing as he had no idea what to say in order to calm the boy down this time around, he just settled for holding the boy in his embrace while throwing looks of venom towards the 'Mad Blooming Princess'.

"Don't you dare to touch him! " Zero glared as he directed his words towards the female pureblood, at the same time he called out for Akane's attention.

"Akane, come in and take Subaru. I don't care where you took him, just get him as far away from here as possible. "

"Hm..m... Interesting, very interesting indeed. I would've thought after what I've done to you, you would be looking at all vampires with unbidden hatred and especially the pureblood. Yet, here you are ... showing care and concern for another pureblood vampire. Granted, a child but still a pureblood, nonetheless. " Shizuka Hiou commented, and smirking with satisfaction when she felt the body stance of Zero stiffening.

"Akane, hurry and go! Shizuka, for the last time I am warning you ... Do not touch him! " Zero responded, as he pointed his gun towards the unmoving figure of Shizuka Hiou.

Wanting to distract Shizuka thus creating a chance for Akane to escape with Subaru, Zero fired several shots towards Shizuka at once. Shizuka dodged successfully for a while, before two shots hit her squarely around the area of the chest. However, before a third shot could hit her, Ichiru had re-appeared in the doorway throwing a sword in between Shizuka and Zero thus causing the shot to miss its' initial target.

"Ichiru, haven't I told you not to poke your nose into my business? " Shizuka questioned, throwing the new-comer a look of annoyance.

"Yes, you did. Shizuka-sama, but I certainly could not allowed myself to merely sit back and watched while my elder twin tried to kill you. " Ichiru responded, matter-of-factly acting as though he did not noticed the look of annoyance which Shizuka had been directing towards him since his interference.

"... I thought you're dead, Ichiru ... " Zero muttered aloud, he knew Ichiru had been taken by Shizuka but he certainly was not expecting his twin to be alive or rather, he was not expecting Shizuka to be keeping his twin alive and healthy.

Removing the mask that was keeping his features hidden, Ichiru smirked and greeted. "So you haven't forgotten about me, Zero Oniisan. "

Yuuki, on the other hand, was practically stunned speechless. Ichiru was calling Zero his 'Oniisan', and they were twin siblings. Then why on earth is he not siding with Zero, and instead was helping Shizuka Hiou? Confusion flooded through her mind, rendering her immobile as she tried desperately to digest the whole situation, trying to make sense in them.

"Shizuka-sama, I know you 'love' the idea of 'toying' and 'playing' with my elder brother but honestly, are you trying to get yourself killed by not retaliating? " Ichiru commented, sounding obviously unhappy about Shizuka's lack of response towards Zero's shots.

"Hmph! That's none of your concern, and besides I had no intention of dying here. After all, there are still things waiting to be done. " Shizuka Hiou responded, as she started to retreat allowing for the two newly re-united siblings to fight it out among themselves.

"Good, because I would be in trouble if you were to die on me now ... " Ichiru added, before Shizuka was completely out of hearing range.

"No, Oniisan ... I would be very upset with you, if you were to simply disregard my presence and went after Shizuka-sama, just like that. After all, I do have lots of things to say to you after four years of separation from one another." Ichiru stated, putting his hand out to stop his twin from chasing after the departing pureblood.

---

Shizuka Hiou was on her way back to the room which she had chosen for her own usage after convincing the school Chairman to let Maria stay alone and away from the rest of the night-class members, when she came across the figure of Kaname Kuran lounging by the side of 'her' room.

"That's a rather hideous injury you'd suffered back there ... " Kaname Kuran was saying, as Shizuka passes him by. "How careless of you to get yourself injured by those anti-vampire weapons. Those weapons are a nuisance for us, isn't that so? For even the healing ability of a pureblood would be restricted once subjected to such injury ... "

"May I know just what exactly brought you over? The young lord of the Kuran clan. "

"This ... used to be my room, before the Moon Dormitory had completed its' construction work. "

"I see, good taste you had then. The room's quiet and tranquil, I like it very much. "

"That, I'm glad to know. After all, I shared the same sentiments as you on this subject. "

Shizuka ignored his words, and instead turned her back on him. However, if Shizuka had in mind of just what exactly Kaname had been contemplating on doing to her, she might not have done what she had now.

"Answer my earlier question, just what is the reason for you being here in this academy? "

"For a couple of reasons actually ... One of which had to do with collecting pawns for my own 'game'. " Kaname said, as he approached the female pureblood from behind. Slowly, and silently he thrust his hand into the body of Shizuka Hiou easily, through her still healing and closing wound from the anti-vampire weapons.

Shizuka's eyes widen in shock as she felt the hand of Kaname Kuran piercing through her body, then her eyes gave way to realization as she heard Kaname's whispered words by her ears.

"I do not like it when people touched someone or something which I treasured, and I absolutely loathed it when they tried to place harm upon them. "

Initially, Shizuka was bewildered then the bewilderment gave way to recognition and realization. Then she smirked and said, "I must say, I'm not surprised about your attempt to kill me. Though, I must say someone is not going to be pleased about you taking down his 'prey'. "

"I'll say my reason for killing you is actually justifiable. After all, you did tried to harm one of the most important people in my life. Currently I'm now holding your heart in my grasp, what do you think will happen if I were to crush it now? After being weakened significantly by Zero's anti-vampire weapons, I think even a pureblood like yourself would just dispersed into nothing but sand once I crushed your heart - isn't that so? "

Shizuka smirked, as she questioned. "Are you sure, its' only one person that's important to you among those whom I had tried to harm over the past week? "

Kaname glared and if looks could kill, Shizuka would be dead by now. "I do not know what you are talking about! " Kaname gritted out as he tightened his hold on Shizuka's heart.

Shizuka grimaced, as she continued to speak and provoke the younger pureblood with her words. "Suit yourself then, and if you do intend to kill me. Then would you just get on with it already? If not, I might just kill the Cross girl the next time around, I see her. If not, I might just make Zero one of my 'dummy' then. Ah, not to forget that little pureblood boy whom wandered in while I was taunting and playing around with Zero ... I bet his blood would be delicious too. "

That caused Kaname's last restrain on himself to break completely, as he responded. "Since you wanted me to kill you this much, then I shall gladly obliged and comply to your request. "

With that, Kaname withdrew his hand from the body of Shizuka while he let the former fell onto the ground with blood gushing out from the hole which he had caused while pushing his hand through the barely healed wound of the said female. Then Shizuka did something unexpected, she reached into the obi of her kimono and pulled out a small bottle of blood. Handing it over to Kaname, Shizuka said.

"Give this to Zero, will you? Certainly, you do not need me to explain what's it for ... or do I have to? "

Kaname accepted the bottle without a word, keeping it away in the chest pocket of his blood-stained uniform of the night-class. "Any last words?"

"I think there's no need for me to vocalise them to you, after all I'm certain that you know what you are getting yourself into by killing me. "

Outside the room, Aidou Hanabusa felt his eyes widening upon the sight of his beloved pureblood leader killing Shizuka Hiou. Although, he had no idea what the duo had been conversing about before he was very much aware of how Kaname had thrust his hand into the body of Shizuka Hiou, and took a few gulps of the former's blood in the process.

Back inside the room, Kaname licked his fingers clean of Shizuka's blood before turning away from the sight and left the room without a backward glance. On his way past the stunned figure of Aidou Hanabusa, he shot the said blond a warning glare as he beckoned for the former to follow him in his wake.

Meanwhile, Ichiru and Zero's fight were brought abruptly to an end as Zero commented that the blood that lingered in the air had thickened. Somehow, that triggered the warning bells to start ringing in the mind of Ichiru as the younger Kiryuu twin abandoned his fight with his twin sibling and headed towards the direction of Shizuka's room as fast as his legs could carry him.

~to be continued~

Date started: 30/05/09

Date completed: 01/06/09

Date edited: 01/06/09


	19. Chapter 19

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Sayori's secret will be reveal bit by bit, as for Shizuka's relationship to the Kiryuu it would be elaborated in the later part of this series. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, it does keep me going ^_^

---

Chapter 19 - The death of Shizuka Hiou

"Let go, Yuuki!" Zero said, his voice tight as his eyes keep staring after the direction where he had seen his twin brother, Ichiru heading for. He knew where his twin were heading towards, for he had seen how frantic Ichiru had been after his commenting on the sudden thickening of the scent of blood in the air. Ichiru had muttered that woman name aloud in a near panic state before dropping their fight, and departed from the room in a hurry.

"No! Zero, I won't let you go after you tell me just what do you intend to do after killing Shizuka Hiou. "

"..." Zero was silent, for he had no answer to the question himself. Months ago, he might respond that he had every intention to die together with Shizuka. Now, that option was no longer available for he had the twins to consider. Therefore, he did not respond to Yuuki's query. Instead, he pulled himself forcibly away from Yuuki and departed after Ichiru, allowing his senses to lead him to where Shizuka was.

Ichiru, on the other hand, froze completely upon the sight of a bleeding Shizuka left alone and abandoned in the room to die. He had hurried his way over as fast as his legs could carry him, but still he was too late. Judging from the situation, his logic had already clued him in on the fact that Shizuka Hiou was already too far gone to be saved. Still, despite what his mind told him he felt himself having trouble believing it.

Rather, he does not wants to believe the fact that the pureblood was dying. After all, Shizuka was powerful and Ichiru truly believed that if the said female had not been shot in the chest twice by his elder twin brother's anti-vampire weapons, the former would not have been defeated this easily. With that notion in mind, Ichiru's dislike for his twin brother went up by another notch.

"Shizuka-sama!" Ichiru rushed over to the fallen figure, as he cradled the bleeding pureblood to his chest while he tried his best to hold back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

Upon the sound of Ichiru's panicking voice, Shizuka forced open her heavy eyelids as she regarded the new-comer with an unreadable gaze in them.

"Looks like its' really hard for a pureblood to die easily and promptly even after being subjected to a fatal injury ... " Shizuka mumbled aloud, in a mocking manner.

"No ... Shizuka-sama, I'll give you my blood. You can take them all if you want, but please don't die on me ... " Ichiru started, his efforts at holding back his tears failed utterly as he could felt them running down his cheeks while he conversed with the dying pureblood now.

Shizuka allowed a bitter-sweet smile to tug at her lips as she reached a hand up to wipe the tears off Ichiru's face and said.

"No ... Ichiru, I would not do that to you. I didn't change you then, and I won't be making you a vampire now as well despite the fact that I'm dying. Besides, you and I both know that its' already too late ... I'm too far gone to be saved. "

Silence met her ears, saved for the occasional sniffling sound coming from the weeping teen that held her close and tenderly with care. No wonder people always says that one would always see visions from the past flashing in their minds, when they are on the verge of dying. For this is exactly what Shizuka was experiencing now. Looking up at Ichiru, she found herself taking a trip down her own memory lane.

"Silly boy, why are you crying so hard for me? I'm not worth it, you know? I know you like me a lot ... but still, I'm not someone that you should be shedding your tears for. One of these days, you are going to find that person whom is worth your tears and affection."

"But Shizuka-sama ... what should I do now? " Ichiru asked, his voice sounded choked as he struggled to keep his emotions in check.

"That, is something which you would have to decide for yourself. For it is your life and your future, I cannot tell you what to do about them ... You have to make the decision yourself. Do you understand, Ichiru? "

"Yes, Shizuka-sama."

"Good ... Now, devour me. " Shizuka then ordered, her tone firm and leave no room for any objections to be raised. Ignoring the sudden look of alarm on Ichiru's features, Shizuka just stared up into those lilac eyes that reminded so much of her own with intent and said. "Go on, do not let my blood flow in vain. I've given you my blood before, and I'm giving it again to you now. "

She had left a bottle of her blood with Kaname Kuran, she trusted the former to give it to Zero without fail. After all, if her gut feeling and conjecture was right then the young lord of the Kuran clan must have been in love with Zero without his own realization. With everyone thinking that Zero would descend into 'Level E' without drinking her blood, she was certain that Kaname Kuran would give Zero her blood if the former had wanted to save the "ex-human" from the fate of falling into insanity.

A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, as she thought of the possible reactions that the majority members of the night-class would have once the change in Zero was completed after the ingestion of her blood. However, they would not know that it was her blood that brought on the change though. She highly doubted that anyone would knew of the actual reason behind Zero's sudden change in status, rising from the the rank of an 'ex-human' to a noble ranked vampire, all within forty-eight hours after taking in her blood.

Spurred by curiosity, she knew that quite a number of the night-class members including the pureblood might start to research on the issue but Shizuka was certain that the actual reason behind Zero's change and transformation would never be found for Zero's maternal side of the family - the 'Fujiwara' have secrets unknown to many but themselves. Therefore, it would eventually led everydown to believe that whatever changes which Zero was subjected upon must have something to do with the 'Fujiwara' instead of her blood. After all, nobody knew about her giving Zero her blood with the sole exception of Kaname Kuran whom had been her killer, in this case.

"Shizuka-sama, your wish is my command. " Ichiru responded, somewhat agitatedly as he started to drink the essence of Shizuka's blood in big gulps while Shizuka smiled in content as she slips into the blissful state of oblivion while her body turned into nothing but sheer dust.

---

It was at this particular point of time did Zero burst into the room, but what he witnessed had him frozen to the spot. Ichiru was drinking from Shizuka hungrily, before the pureblood female turned into dust. Yet, despite the clarity of the situation, he still felt himself inclined to ask.

"Ichiru, what are you doing? "

Ichiru, instead of responding to his query merely turned sorrowful eyes upon him with Shizuka's blood still staining the side of his lips and said. "Zero, it's your fault that she's dead ... You and the rest of this academy are to be blamed for her death!"

With that, Ichiru pushed open the window of the room and exited from it without another glance towards Zero. Meanwhile, Akatsuki whom had just arrived at the site was completely stunned by what he had found. The blood that splattered and remained on the ground, together with the sand and dust that lingered behind had given him an insight of just what exactly had taken place within the room, earlier on. Still, by the time he arrived there was no one else saved for the frozen figure of Zero Kiryuu whom had a strong grip on the 'Bloody Rose'.

Although, he highly doubted that it was Zero whom killed Shizuka but nonetheless when he failed to receive any response from the former. He would have no choice but to report Kiryuu as one of the main suspect to the death of Shizuka Hiou, after all in terms of motives, Zero Kiryuu did qualified. Since the former did always wanted to kill Shizuka Hiou as a form of revenge against what the fellow pureblood had done to his own family.

On the other hand, Kaname Kuran was staring at the bottle of blood given to him by Shizuka in silent contemplation. Despite his being the winner in his game with Shizuka Hiou, he still did not understand the former's actions towards the end of their 'game'. Why did Shizuka have a ready bottled blood on herself that's meant for Zero's consumption? Didn't the former bite Zero and hoped that the silver-haired hunter would continue to hunt for her life, while she remained hidden in the dark laughing about the situation when Zero ended up falling into insanity? Wasn't that her ultimate aim and the main reason for biting Zero?

If so, then why on earth does she felt inclined to hand him a bottle of her blood and specifically told him that the blood given was meant for Zero's ingestion? Honestly, Kaname was feeling rather lost as he stared at the bottle of blood that was now sitting on his working desk with an unreadable gaze. Dozen of questions were circling around in his mind, but the one question which stood out among the rest - 'Should he give Zero the blood or not?'

First and foremost, if he were to go to the silver-haired hunter with Shizuka's blood; would the former want to ingest it in the first place? Secondly, by coming out to reveal that the blood which he was giving to Zero belongs to Shizuka Hiou ... wasn't that equivalent to his admitting of being Shizuka's killer? How would Zero think of him then? Would the silver-haired hunter think him cold-blooded? Would Zero hate him for killing Shizuka when the idea of killing Shizuka thus revenging his family had been the silver-haired guardian's utmost motive in life since the former was bitten by the female pureblood? Either way, that was what bothered him most at this point of time.

In the meantime, Aidou Hanabusa was exceptionally quiet for that night. Ever since the conversation with his beloved pureblood leader following his chance encounter of the former killing Shizuka Hiou, he had been behaving in this particular manner. Somehow, the idea of staying within the Moon Dormitory does not appeals to him at the point of time and neither does heading back to the dance party and tried to joke around with the day-class females sound appealing to him. Therefore, he found himself wandering out into the woods instead. After all, he need some time to himself so as to sort out his thoughts on the whole situation.

However, it seems like the woods was not exactly abandoned like what he had thought. Standing under one of the shady trees conversing with someone through a phone was the unmistakable figure of Wakaba Sayori. The idea of lecturing the human girl for wandering out alone unescorted was on the verge of tumbling out from his mouth, when he stopped himself in time. For he knew, the girl would only find his constant reminder annoying and would then proceeded on to remind him of her own capabilities to take care of herself.

"You know, if you continue to stand there ... you will find yourself getting a sun-burn in approximately three hours time. " Wakaba Sayori piped up from her position under the shady tree, after ending the phone call.

Aidou blinked, before throwing back a retort of his own. "What about you? Why are you still out here? Speaking of which, are you concern about the possibility of me suffering from a sun-burn when its' time for dawn? "

"No, I wasn't getting myself concern over your affairs. I was merely pointing out a fact, and that I do not wish to have my female classmates weeping over the idea of their 'Idol-Senpai' getting a sun-burn as though its' the end of the world. As for my reason of staying up late and loitering out here, I honestly doubt that I need to justify them with you. " Sayori responded, nonchalantly.

Silence stung the air, for Aidou was not in the mood to involve himself in a verbal argument with the human friend of the female guardian. Sayori, on the other hand, was never one that enjoyed the idea of arguing with another and thus was welcoming the tranquil silence that settles between them, nicely and without awkwardness.

"Shizuka's dead ... " Aidou started, not knowing why he was telling this to Wakaba Sayori, of all possible candidates but he felt the need to get something off his chest. The exact knowledge of whom killed the female pureblood was too much of a heavy burden upon him, though he was not going to reveal to the human girl that it was his beloved pureblood leader whom killed Shizuka.

"I know ... " Sayori's response was soft, but audible. Still, it stunned Aidou for a split second as he wondered if the girl had witnessed what he did back at the abandoned dormitory building. Unknowingly, he tensed up at the girl's words as he wondered what his pureblood leader might be capable of doing to the girl. He, himself have been subjected to various death threats by his leader and having known for a fact that Kaname would kill if the need arises. Somehow, Aidou found himself fearing for the safety of the human girl whom he had been ordered to keep an eye upon.

As though sensing his uneasiness, Sayori spoke up again. "Whatever you are thinking, you can jolly well discarded them. I did not know of Shizuka's death the same way as you did, I was told about it just now during the phone conversation with some of my family's acquaintance. It seems that someone had given both the Vampire Council and the Hunter's Association the slip that Shizuka Hiou, a pureblood had been killed within the academy grounds. That is how I came to know of her death ... "

Upon Sayori's words, Aidou felt his eyes widening in shock. For he knew things are going to get downright complicated now, the council would not take it lightly about the death of another pureblood, and for it to take place within Cross Academy itself spelt trouble for them all. Swallowing nervously, Aidou tried to hide his anxiety by speaking calmly.

"Did that person tell you whom was the one that reported the event to the council? Have you any idea of the killer's identity? "

"... I can't tell you whom reported the event, but I can tell you the name of the main suspect that the council had it in mind to blame Shizuka Hiou's death upon. " Sayori told the blue-eyed blond vampire calmly, as she uttered the name which belongs to one of her classmates, and the subject of her daily observations. "Zero. "

"What?!" Aidou started in shock, before clapping his hand over his mouth. Thank goodness he had caught himself in time, or he would have slipped up and just blurted out that it was Kaname, not Zero whom had been Shizuka's killer.

Sayori choose to disregard Aidou's reactions, as she continue to speak. "That's the name of the killer that the informant had chose to tell the council. However, I do not believe it in the slightest bit. Nonetheless, I think the council would just take the informant's words for it and choose not investigate the situation deeper. So I guess, we could pretty much assumed that the council would send their envoys over with a warrant of arrest for Zero in another few days' time. "

"... " For a while, Aidou just stared at the human girl in silent contemplation. There seemed to be a mystery surrounding the girl, he wanted to know what that is but he knew Sayori would never revealed it to him or anyone else for that matter. At least, not at this point of time but he was certain that one of these days, Sayori's secret would be out in the open for everyone to know. Somehow, deep underneath his own heart he wanted very much to be the first person whom get to know about the girl's secret.

"Shit!" Aidou cursed aloud as the thought fleeted past his mind, causing the human girl to stare at him quizzically before turning away from him. 'Stop it, and snapped out of it! Stop thinking about something that would never happened, and she's a human ... For heaven's sake, things would never worked out between them! '

Aidou told himself repeatedly inside his heart, the girl had first caught his eyes when he noticed for the first time just how different Sayori's reactions to the members of the night-class had seemed when one compared her with the rest of the day-class females. The girl had always greeted them politely whenever they crossed each other path's within the school grounds, but that was it. Sayori would never be seen among the fan-girls, instead it was by the side of Yuuki if the girl did happened to be hanging around the vicinity of the Moon Dormitory.

Nonetheless, he had not given the girl's existence any thoughts before. It was not until Kaname send him out to keep a constant watch on the girl's daily activities did he finally felt himself somewhat drawn towards Sayori's personality and characteristics. Despite the fact that it had only been a week since he started to watch the girl, but Sayori had never failed to fascinate him throughout the week.

True, the girl had always been keeping an eye on Zero but according to his observation, Sayori was not observing Zero's out of personal interest. At least, it was not in the sense of romance but one out of sheer duty and responsibility. He had seen how Sayori would always frown when Zero got himself injured, and how the girl had taken to talk for a prolonged period of time over the phone in the middle of the night, and out in some isolated areas for fear of disturbing anyone with her phone conversation.

"Wakaba Sayori ... Who are you, actually? " Aidou found himself musing aloud, as he stared at the silent girl from behind.

"Hm.m..? Did you say anything just now? " Sayori turned towards the blue-eyed blond vampire and asked, cocking her head slightly to the side as she regarded the daze-like blond.

Aidou blinked, coming back to his senses and nearly blanched upon recalling his previous words. Still, he shook his head and responded. "Nothing ... just talking to myself. "

"Oh ... alright then, I'll be off now. Although, I'll say you might want to hurry along too unless you really intended to get yourself a sun-burn. " Sayori said, as she reminded the blond yet again of the possibility of being burnt if he were to stay out in the woods, any longer.

It was after all, the start of the spring season as it was now officially March. The season of winter had ended two days ago, and with the approach of the season of spring. The sun-rays are bound to be stronger, therefore it would really be a torture for vampires like Aidou to stay out in the day for a prolonged period of time.

---

Akane sighed as she fought the urge to doze off in class, she had spend hours trying to calm the agitated Subaru down late last night. The intention to skip her class for the day was strong but still she forced herself to come for classes, for she knew the notes which Yuuki had it in mind to take down for Zero would never be detailed and clear enough to explain what the teacher had covered in class for the day. Therefore, she would have to be here for class so as to note down all the key points and additional information which the teacher had supplied to the class as preparation for the upcoming final semester examinations.

During lunch break, Akane and Yuuki went over to the Chairman's place so as to check on Zero's recovery progress. They arrived just in time to find the Chairman trying to keep Zero from wandering off by himself, the silver-haired hunter was obvious limping about the place as the injury that he had inflicted upon himself with the use of the 'Bloody Rose' had yet to heal properly.

"See, Zero! I told you that you should just stayed in bed and waited until your wound had healed by itself before you start to move around the place. Now you are going to bleed all over the carpet as your wound reopened itself from the impact of moving unnecessarily. " The Chairman chided Zero, good-naturedly with a frown marring his features.

However, Zero refused to obey and just wanted to proceed on with his usual guardian's duty. It was not until Akane cut in smoothly and said.

"I would advice you to stay in bed, I bet Subaru's going to drop by later with Akira in tow. Depending on the situation, Kaname-sama is going to come by and pay you a visit as well. Certainly, you would not want to make the twins worry unnecessarily? Not to forget, going about your usual guardian's duty while still bleeding from the injury makes you all the more vulnerable to the lure of the blood-lust. Are you sure you want to risk the possibility of endangering the rest of the school population by going out there, in your current condition?"

"... " Upon Akane's words, Zero fell silent as he allowed himself to be ushered back to his room by Yuuki and the Chairman. Yuuki probably thought Akane was going to feed him again, and thus decided to leave the notes with Akane and left the room so as to grant them both some privacy.

However, Akane did not bring up the issue of feeding him which was indeed a surprise to him as well. Instead, the girl merely commented. "Here's the notes from Yuuki and myself, I think you should look through Yuuki's notes first before referring to mine. What she wrote was basically what the teacher had written on the board, my version of the notes included some additional information which the teacher had talked about but did not list them out on the board as its' mainly for additional knowledge. "

"I see ... thanks, I supposed. " Zero responded, as he flipped through the notes idly and scanning them rapidly with his eyes before setting them aside for the time-being.

"I would like to feed you if possible, but unfortunately ... today would be kind of inconvenient for myself. For there's a very big tendency for me to go into a blood-lust, should I choose to feed you now ..." Akane explained, looking down at Zero's injury with a frown before retrieving the first aid kit from the bathroom and started to re-apply and change the bandages on Zero's wound.

At first Zero was bewildered by Akane's words, before he distinctively noted the scent of Akane's blood. It was mild as his own blood was clouding his senses but still rather distinctive, for he had taken the girl's blood so many times that he could pin-point the fact that Akane was bleeding somewhere. However, a quick scan of the girl's physical appearance he knew that there was no injury in sight, but still it remained a fact that the girl was bleeding. It was then that a certain image from the day-class health education class came flashing into his mind, did he finally realized why and where Akane was bleeding. That causes his face to turn an interesting shade of red, and Akane to smirk at him openly.

"So I see you've finally figured it out eh? Aidou nearly got a tongue lash from Takuma, when he had openly inquired about the issue of why I'm bleeding nonstop this morning when he returned from the outside. Sometimes I wonder why he's so oblivious about such issues when he had quite a number of sisters at home ... "

"Who knows, maybe he just slept through the most of that health class? Wait, does the night-class schedule included that in the syllabus? "

"... No idea, why don't you ask the class representative of the night-class himself? " Akane suddenly said, as she stepped away from Zero and took her leave after nodding at someone whom had just stepped into his room, uninvited.

There was no need for him to question the identity of the new visitor, for it could only be a certain pureblood going by the name of Kaname Kuran.

With an inward sigh, Zero stared up at his uninvited guest and decided to drop all pretense and just cut straight into his point.

"So what exactly brings you over today? I don't see either of the twins with you, so it can't be due to their insistence upon visiting me that resulted in your presence here today. "

For a while, Kaname did not respond. For he was trying to see if there could be any way in which he could give Zero the blood of Shizuka's without admitting to the former indirectly, that he had been the culprit behind Shizuka's sudden death on campus.

"Kuran, in case you've forgotten about my existence ... May I remind you again that I am still waiting for your respond on this particular issue? " Zero's voice cuts in, impatiently startling him out from his thoughts.

"I apologized for spacing out on you, but I do have some other thoughts on my mind ... " Kaname stated, his tone flat and laced with some hints of annoyance upon the silver-haired hunter's lack of patience with him. For some reasons, it make him feel as though Zero detested the idea of being alone with him for more than five minutes without the twins being around.

---

Silence stung the air, for the two vampires duo tried to stare one another down with their heated gaze. Some time later, Zero broke their eye-contact as he turned his eyes away from the pureblood. He felt incredibly stupid for engaging himself in some kind of staring contest with the pureblood, knowing for certain that he would never win against the former. His patience was limited, and he would get unnerved by the silence eventually and snapped. That much, he knew. So why was he even bothering with the idea to get any form of response out from Kaname by staring the former down?

Then he noticed something being placed on the bedside table and frowned. "What is that? "

"What do you think it is? " Kaname's voice responded, evenly and calmly from behind.

Zero took a moment to assess the bottle of red liquid before responding, "Blood ... but whose? "

"It's not Akane's ... and I honestly doubt, its' from the twins. Somehow, I highly doubt the possibility of these blood coming from you ... "

Kaname suppressed the urge to growl upon the silver-haired hunter's words, for inwardly he had wanted to give the former his own blood. However, he knew only Shizuka's blood have the ability to stop the silver-haired hunter from descending into the realms of insanity. Therefore, regardless of how much he disliked the idea of giving Shizuka's blood to the former, he would have to as it was the only solution to keep Zero alive and sane.

"Yes, unfortunately for me ... You are right in your assumption, those blood aren't from me. They are, in fact, from the one and only pureblood that you'd failed but desired very much to kill for yourself. Those blood ... they belonged to Shizuka Hiou. "

Zero froze upon the mention of Shizuka's name, as he turned to stare at Kaname with wide disbelieving eyes. His mouth open and close but no words were formed, he was too stunned to form coherent thoughts or words. Sure, he admitted to the idea that he had wanted very much to see the female pureblood dead. Still, when he witnessed the last moment of the female pureblood he was completely stunned speechless. Somehow, he felt empty as though he was missing a part of himself when Shizuka died. He had thought it was because of the sudden absence of the bond between Shizuka and himself, that made him reacted in that manner.

With the death of Shizuka, and the fact that Ichiru had drained the last of Shizuka's blood. Zero thought he was doomed for the fate of descending into 'Level E', one of these days. Yet, now Kaname Kuran had waltzed into his room with a bottle of Shizuka's blood placed in front of him, just what exactly does the former had it in mind for him to do? Was the pureblood trying to get him to drink Shizuka's blood? Or was it just another mind-game that the former wanted to involve him in?

"What exactly are you playing at? I've seen how Shizuka died, and how Ichiru had drained the very last drop of her blood. How could it be possible that you are able to get your hands on her blood? Unless you are the killer, yourself ... " Zero froze in mid-question, as realization sets in upon him and he paled visibly.

"You did it ... You are the one whom killed her! It had to be the case, or you wouldn't have been able to get your hands upon her blood! " Zero started to speak again, this time around he was staring with intent as though daring the former to contradict his accusation.

"Yes, it was me. I was the one whom killed her. " Kaname admitted, after all there was no point in him trying to hide that particular information away from Zero.

Upon Kaname's honest response, Zero felt a torrent of emotions flooding through him. There was obviously confusion as he tried to understand Kaname's reason for killing Shizuka. There was also the justifiable annoyance and irritation, as he felt that Kaname had steal his 'prey' for it had always been his desire to kill Shizuka, for himself as a form of revenge against the female for causing his family tragedy. Then for some odd reason, there was anguish mixed among the slightest hint of sadness and sorrow that was hidden underneath the depths of his heart upon the knowledge of Shizuka's death.

"Zero? " Kaname started in concern, frowning as he felt the silver-haired guardian staring blankly at him. He could see a torrent of emotions being reflected in the lilac eyes of the hunter, but the former had shown no outward reactions to his words. Therefore, when the former came outright and told him to leave. He was relieved that the hunter was not paralyzed with shock.

"I said, Leave! Or do you have problem understanding my words? " Zero gritted out in irritation, he was staring down at the floor and clenching his fists by his side.

Kaname knew Zero probably need some time to sort things out, and thus he left the room without a word. After all, he did have other duties that required his attention. His hand hovered near the bottle of blood standing on the bedside table for a second, wondering if he should take the bottle of blood with him as he leave. However, before his hand could reached for the bottle, Zero's voice stopped him in the mid of his actions.

"Leave the bottle and go ... "

Zero was aware of the quizzical stare which he was being subjected to by the pureblood before the former made a move to leave the room, thus enabling him to sort out his thoughts alone. Staring at the bottle of blood sitting innocently on his bedside table, part of him wanted to smash the bottle to pieces, whereas another part of him wanted to just ignore its' existence. Why did he requested for the bottle to be left in his room, he had no idea since the idea of drinking the blood now was the very last thing on his mind.

In fact, even if he had been the one whom killed Shizuka, he knew he would never drink the former's blood. For his intention was to die together with Shizuka, as he delivered his killing move on the female. Now, with Shizuka killed by Kuran and her blood readied for his consumption sitting innocently by the side of his bed. He had no idea what to do next, should he drink the blood and keep himself from falling to the realm of insanity? Or should he just smashed that bottle to pieces, and succumbed himself to the inevitable fate of losing his sanity? Honestly, he was at a loss of actions.

With a half-hearted growl, he made a grab for that notebook of Akane and started to focus his attention upon studying instead of staring at the bottle of blood as he tried to figure out what he should do about it.

~to be continued~

Date started: 01/06/09

Date completed: 03/06/09

Date edited: 03/06/09


	20. Chapter 20

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Finally, it hits 100 reviews XD A very big thank you going out to those faithful reviewers, I really appreciate the reviews. ^__^ Again, credit going out to Craze_Izumi for selling her ideas to me and helping me out on the planning of this fic.

---

Chapter 20 - Kaname, Zero and the Vampire Council, Part 1

"Daddy! We're here to visit you!"

The sudden sound of Akira Kuran's excited voice jarred Zero out from his thoughts, the injured guardian had been staring at the bottle of blood from Shizuka in a daze-like manner for the past thirty minutes. Zero had to admit he was indeed surprise to have the twins waited this long, before coming over for a visit. It had been two days since Kaname came by and dropped off the bottle of blood that belonged to Shizuka Hiou for his consumption, which he had yet to touch. For he was still somewhat hesitant about the idea of drinking it.

His logic had been urging him to drink the blood so as to prevent himself from the possibility of falling to 'Level E', but on the other hand, he was uncertain about the future. He had come this far and survived this long just for the sake of revenging his family, but now with Shizuka dead. The motive which had kept him alive thus far, had disappeared completely. So what could he possibly be doing, after ingesting the blood of Shizuka?

His twin, Ichiru had vanished after blaming him for the death of Shizuka Hiou and Ichiru's words had been circling around in his mind over the past few days. After giving it some consideration, he decided that Ichiru did have a reason to blame him for Shizuka's death. If only he had not weakened Shizuka significantly with his anti-vampire weapon, then Shizuka certainly would not be killed by Kaname Kuran, that easily.

The sheer thought of Kaname Kuran caused Zero to frown in confusion again, up until now he still had not come up with a possible reason to explain why Kaname had to kill Shizuka. Certainly, those blood cannot be the reason why Kaname Kuran killed Shizuka Hiou, right? He highly doubted Kaname would kill the pureblood female for his sake, so it must have been because of Yuuki. Probably Kaname was angered by how Shizuka had intended to make use of Yuuki, that resulted in Kaname's decision to kill. Zero thought, what he does not know was that Shizuka had practically provoked Kaname into killing her by threatening to harm Subaru and himself. That, combined with her making use of Yuuki pushes the dark haired pureblood over the edge and thus ended up killing her.

"Daddy!! Are you listening to me?! " Akira's loud protests snapped Zero out from his train of thoughts, drawing him back into reality.

"Sorry Akira ... I was pre-occupied, what did you just say? " Zero apologized to the younger boy, as he responded.

"... Never mind, I was just complaining about Subaru's hesitancy at coming over to visit you. " Akira mumbled aloud, before darting his eyes towards the doorway where the other boy stood awkwardly and uneasily with a guilty expression on his features.

"Daddy, how are you feeling today? " Subaru's voice questioned tentatively from the doorway, trying his hardest to avoid looking at the silver-haired teen.

"Subaru, I'm fine. Why are you standing in the doorway and not coming in? " Zero asked, as he frowned upon sighting the guilty expression on the silver-haired child's features.

Silence was the only response which Zero had gotten from the guilty boy, and instead it was Akira whom responded on behalf for Subaru. "Daddy ... Subaru's guilty because he thought it was because of him, that you are now injured ... "

Unlike Subaru, the younger twin was exceptionally at ease and was making himself comfortable in Zero's room within the Chairman's residence. Due to his injury, he had once again being forced to stay and recuperate in the Chairman's residence instead of heading back to the Sun Dormitory.

"And what about you, Akira? " Zero asked, directing his question to the younger boy. For he found Akira's reaction to his injury too calm, and he thought it strange as it was usually Akira that snapped before Subaru does. However, it seems that this time around their reactions varied too much from one another.

The dark-haired boy blinked twice, before turning around to face his Daddy as he responded with solemnity. "To be frank with you, Daddy ... I am not happy with the fact that you've injured yourself just for the sake of calming Subaru down. However, I cannot reversed the situation as what had already happened cannot be undone. Therefore, I am just going to make the best out of the current situation and that is, to remain optimistic. You might thought it strange that I didn't come running to you, after feeling Subaru's power going out of control since it wasn't anything that occurred on a daily basis.

In actuality, I did thought about checking out the situation for myself when I felt Subaru's power spinning out of control but I did not because I know you will be able to get Subaru to calm himself down. Besides, I know if I were to go running to you after feeling Subaru's power going haywire, you would ended up having to calm two distressed boys instead of the initial one. That would do you more harm than good, and despite how I may have acted at times. I still have some common sense in me, and in addition Aunt Seiren was keeping a close watch on me. I honestly doubt that I could sneak off that easily, with her watching me like a hawk. "

Zero stared at Akira, open-mouthed and in shock. Of all the possible things he had thought the boy would be saying to him, this was certainly not what he had been expecting.

"... Daddy, close your mouth or you would be catching flies in there. I know what you are thinking, but honestly give me some credit. Will you? Although, I may not have acted like it but I am still a Kuran, alright? Besides, I believe Subaru need your comfort more than I do, at this point of time. " Akira Kuran stared up at his stunned Daddy, as he commented dryly.

The night when Akira felt his twin brother's power going out of control, he had a feeling that something must had happened to their 'Daddy'. For he knew, nobody but their Daddy have the capability to make that usually calm and collected twin brother of his to lose control like that. Then when Akane returned with the guilty and distressed twin brother of his, the dark expression on his adopted sister's face stopped him from asking anything in detail. If it had been any other days, he might have pressed the former for an answer but he was definitely not going to try anything of that sort on that night. Not when his twin sibling was already emotional to start with, and that Akane's mood was not faring too well either.

Nonetheless, that did not stop him from snooping around for details. Over the past few days, he had somehow managed to discover just what exactly had happened on that night when he scented his daddy's blood being spilled twice within an hour, and felt his twin brother's powers going out of control. He had found things out when he eavesdropped on a conversation between Akane and Takuma Ichijo, when the duo were conversing about the events that occurred that night within the privacy of Akane's room. His first reaction then had been anger, but the raw feeling of rage subsided and gave way to logic soon enough. After all, it was no use for him to get angry over something which had already happened. For it would do nothing to change the situation, and therefore he told himself to try acting normal and pretending that nothing had ever happened.

Unfortunately, even while he could act as though he was still oblivious to the happenings. Subaru could not, and therefore he ended up having to assure his distressed brother several times a day that their 'Daddy' would be alright. Still, it failed to stop Subaru from guilt and blaming himself for their daddy's injury. For the days that followed, Subaru started to get hesitant about visiting their 'Daddy' but yet was deeply concerned with the silver-haired hunter's condition as well.

In the end, Akira had to drag Subaru over with him when their father had finally gave them the permission to visit the recuperating silver-haired guardian, this morning.

"... " Zero sighed inwardly, as he make his way over to the doorway and pull the boy in for a hug. He was apparently still limping, but thankfully he was no longer bleeding. Otherwise, Subaru's guilt level would be brought up another notch instead of being lowered.

---

During which period of time whereby Zero was busy comforting Subaru. Akira had somehow gotten his hands upon the bottle of red liquid that was sitting innocently on his Daddy's bedside table and had decided to figure out just what exactly that red liquid was. He was shaking the bottle around trying to decipher just what exactly was within the bottle, when his Daddy's voice calling out for his attention startled him so bad that he dropped the bottle of red liquid in shock.

Silence reigned, as the sound of the bottle breaking rendered Zero immobile for a minute before he recovered from the shock. Akira blanched, hoping that he had not break anything valuable.

"I'm sorry, Daddy ... I didn't mean to drop the bottle, its' just that your voice startled me so bad that I lose my grip on it. " Akira apologized as he bend over the broken fragments of the bottle and tried to clean up the mess with his hands.

"Akira, its' fine. Leave it, and don't touch it. The fragments are sharp and you could end up injuring yourself if you're not careful. I'll take care of them later. " Zero said, as he stopped the younger boy from cleaning up the mess created from the destruction of the bottle that contains Shizuka's blood. Deciding that maybe he was just not meant to be saved, Zero merely shrugged nonchalantly as though Akira had just broke something that could be replaced easily.

Kaname Kuran had been waiting outside for the twins patiently, having just emerged from a discussion with the Chairman about the issue about what to do with Maria Kurenai when he heard the sound of something breaking within the room. Initially, he had wanted to cast the issue off easily, but when he scented Shizuka's blood in the air. Kaname knew it was the sound of the blood bottle breaking that he had heard previously, and decided that it was perhaps time for him to step in for some damage control.

Upon his entrance into the room, Kaname knew instantly that it was Akira whom had broken the bottle and not Zero. For a while, he thought of disciplining the boy but before he could get a word out, Zero intervened.

"It's alright. " Zero started, trying his best to sound unaffected by the incident before Kaname could penalized the boy for breaking the bottle of Shizuka's blood.

Kaname Kuran stared at the silver-haired hunter for a second, before addressing the two boys in the room. "Subaru, Akira ... go outside and wait for me. Regardless of what you hear later, do not attempt to enter the room or else ... "

"... " The twins shared a look among themselves before scurrying out of the room, to give their young parents some privacy. They knew their father had in mind to do something to their daddy, which would be unsuitable for kids like them to witness. However, knowing their parents' there would be some verbal arguments before anything else were to happen or it could be just that their father does not enjoyed the idea of being interrupted by them.

After all, the last time Akira walked in on the two young adults, it had resulted in their Daddy slapping their Father on the cheek out of embarrassment.

"You're lying." Kaname stated, as soon as the twins were out of ear-shot.

Zero bristled upon Kaname's words, as he threw back a sharp retort. "I don't get what you are trying to say, and just what exactly are you trying to do by chasing the twins out? "

"By forcing the blood down your throat if I absolutely have to. If only, you'd just drink Shizuka's blood without so much hesitancy then I probably would not have to resort to such extreme measures. However, I should probably be thankful that I had the insight to separate the amount of her blood into two separate bottles, just in case you happened to smash the first bottle into bits and pieces. " Kaname responded, his voice even and smooth as he reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out another similar bottle that contained the same amount of blood in the smashed bottle.

Thankfully, the amount of blood supplied by Shizuka had been rather generous. The amount was more than sufficient to keep a 'Level D' sane and free from insanity. Only a mouthful of the master's blood was enough to keep any ex-human sane, so why did Shizuka went to the extent of giving him a full bottle of blood? That, he do not understand but now he was exceptionally glad that Shizuka had given him more than enough blood to let him separate them into two portion. He had then give the first bottle to Zero, while keeping the other bottle himself as a form of precaution.

After all, there was no guarantee that the silver haired hunter would not smashed the bottle upon sighting it. Therefore, Kaname figured that it would be better to be safe than to be sorry, later on in time. Deciding that he should simply just take the matters into his own hands, lest Zero destroyed the only chance of survival by damaging the only other bottle of Shizuka's blood on hand. Kaname decided to take a page out of Akane's books, and force the blood down the silver-haired hunter's throat in the exact same manner as the girl had been seen using previously.

Zero, on the other hand, was staring wide-eyed at Kaname as the former pulled another bottle of Shizuka's blood out from the pant's pocket. As the pureblood started heading for him with determination, Zero felt himself stiffening for he was suddenly reminded of a certain memory whereby Akane had headed for him in a similar manner only to force-fed him with the blood of a future Ichijo.

'... No way, please tell me that guy is not thinking about doing the same ...' Zero thought inwardly to himself, as his eyes widen upon the sight of Kaname removing the bottle cap before the content of the bottle was emptied by the pureblood.

"Shit!" was the only word which he could get himself to utter before he felt his mouth being claimed by the former, again. This was the second time that he had been subjected to a kiss that was being forced upon his lips by the pureblood, only this time around the former was trying to feed and kiss him, doing both things at once.

Upon the first taste of Shizuka's blood on his taste buds, Zero felt the logic and common sense in him forsaking him in a flash of light. The blood of the female pureblood tasted awfully sweet, and despite the annoyance that Zero had felt in response to that particular notion. Zero still felt himself craving for more of that woman's blood.

Maybe, it was due to the lure of his blood-lust or it might just be the fact that the blood of a pureblood vampire always had an alluring effect to the other lower ranking vampires by nature. Somehow, Zero found himself responding to the kiss of Kaname Kuran unknowingly as he darted his tongue out and into Kaname's mouth, exploring and taking in the remaining blood of Shizuka that still lingers in the mouth of the former's greedily and passionately.

Upon feeling the response of Zero's tongue darting into his mouth, Kaname felt himself shuddering against his will. Part of him was shock at the response he was receiving from the silver-haired hunter, whereas another part of him wanted to moan with pleasure as he felt Zero's lengthened fangs brushing past the flesh of his tongue in estacy. Yet, at the same time he felt a slight annoyance towards the silver-haired hunter for he knew - it was Shizuka's blood that spurs the former into kissing him. If it was not for the fact that he had been feeding Zero with the remaining portion of Shizuka's blood by force, the silver-haired hunter would never be caught kissing him, at all.

The kiss ended almost immediately once the silver-haired hunter realized just what exactly had he been doing. With cheeks flaming red and flushing from both stark horror and embarrassment, Zero forced himself to pull away from the pureblood while keeping his eyes away from the former, opting to stare at the ground with intensity instead.

Inwardly, Zero was so flustered that he wanted so much to just hide himself away from the world's detection for the days that follow. He was born and raised to be a hunter, and yet here he was obviously enjoying a kiss that was being forced upon him by another vampire. Not only was he enjoying the kiss, he was responding to it as well with passion, at that. He had no idea what was worse, the 'kiss' between Kaname and himself or was it the fact that he actually craved for the blood of Shizuka Hiou, whom he used to hate.

Not knowing how to react to the pureblood's presence, Zero started to speak. "Get out ..."

Kaname was more than willing to comply to the silver-haired hunter's request this evening, after all, his motive for coming over today had been accomplished. He had managed to get Zero to ingest the blood of Shizuka Hiou, thus putting a stop to that possibility of the former falling to the realm of insanity for good.

The fact that Zero had responded to the kiss was good enough to him for the time-being, despite the fact that it was partly due to the former's desire for Shizuka's blood that resulted in the 'kiss' being reciprocated. After all, he had confidence in himself for the capturing of the fellow hunter's heart given time. Besides, he prided himself to be a man with patience.

Kaname was half-way out of the door, when he heard the hunter speaking up again. "Take the twins with you as you leave, they can come back again tomorrow if they want. For now, I wished to be left alone ... "

There was no need for Kaname to respond, for the twins had already heard Zero's words from their position outside the room. Thus, they understood and had obeyed the silver-haired hunter's request for them to leave with their younger father without kicking up a fuss.

---

Following the departure of the twins and Kaname Kuran, Zero allowed himself to drop wearily onto the foot of his bed. Closing his eyes for a moment to calm himself down, as he was still blushing madly with mortification over his previous actions. Zero slowly replayed the events that had transpired over the past hour and sighed aloud in weariness.

"What the hell am I supposed to do now? " He could not helped but asked himself.

With the ingestion of Shizuka's blood into his own, he knew he was already saved from the fate of falling into insanity. Still, his future remained questionable for he had absolutely no idea what he should be doing in the near future that was to come in time. For years, he had survived on the idea of taking revenge upon Shizuka Hiou and that one of these days, his life would be ended due to his 'fall' into 'Level E'. Therefore, he had never really given his future much thoughts before today. Since the idea of ingesting Shizuka's blood had never did crossed his mind before, and he had always assumed that he would die with Shizuka while trying to kill the former. Thus, the idea of having a future had never did crossed his mind prior to the recent events.

Even with the trio arrival several weeks ago, he still remained skeptical about the whole issue of him having a future together with the pureblood - Kaname Kuran. True, he admitted the fact that he might felt something that's akin to attraction towards the former now, and that he was very much aware of the former's lust towards him at this point of time. Still, it did nothing to change the fact that there would be Yuuki to consider. Yuuki had been his first friend since he was turned by Shizuka, and therefore he does not want to hurt the girl unnecessarily.

Furthermore, there was the fact that Yuuki had been Kaname's rightful fiancee and that Kaname's past actions had made it perfectly clear to him that the pureblood was in love with Yuuki. Although, it was rather obvious that the pureblood did felt something for him now, Zero knew the feeling would never surfaced or arises if the trio had not turned up and let them in on the possibility of them being together in the distant future.

In any case, the engagement between Kaname and Yuuki would need to be resolved before anything else could happen between them but Zero knew, the engagement issue probably would not be resolved until a later stage of time whereby the suppressed memory of Yuuki started to re-surface and make itself known again. Until then, nothing much could be done except to wait.

The lingering scent of Shizuka's blood reminded Zero of the need to clean up the mess which Akira had created earlier on in time. With a shake of his head, Zero started to head for the attached bathroom and emerged soon after with a rag cloth and a bucket of water. During which process, he realized that he was no longer limping. That caused him to frown in annoyance, for the now fully healed injury had served to remind him again of the fact that he was no longer a human, but a vampire. At the same time, it also clued him on the fact that the blood of a pureblood vampire does seems to work better and faster than the blood of a noble.

While Zero was working on removing the stain of Shizuka's blood on the flooring of his room situated within the Chairman's residence, Yuuki was conducting one of her usual routine inspection round about the school. Akane, on the other hand, was working on a school project with Sayori in the school's library. Although, it was now officially the time of lesson for the night-class students and that the day-class students were strongly urged to return to their own dormitory building to continue their work on the project. The two girls were given special permission to stay around longer by the Chairman himself, providing that they lock up the library after their usage.

Initially, when Akane brought up the suggestion to the Chairman, Kaien Cross had frowned over the request. However, he relented when Akane brought up the valid point that neither of them would be able to work on the project if they were to remain in their respective dormitory once evening comes around. For Akane resided with the vampires in the Moon Dormitory, and Sayori with the humans within the Sun Dormitory for girls. Seeing no other options available, the Chairman had agreed reluctantly to grant Sayori the permission to stay on in school for an extended period of time, until the final term project for the year was completed and submitted to the teacher-in-charge.

Besides, what could possibly go wrong? Sayori was well-known for her sensibility, and would never go around trying to attract the attention of the night-class members and being a friend of Yuuki, Kaname would keep it in mind that nobody from the night-class would tried to harm the girl. In addition to Kaname's supervision of the night-class students, the Chairman knew what Akane was capable of doing if they were to be ambushed by any members of the night-class. Not that anyone would dared to attempt something of that sort, since anyone whom attempted to mess with Akane would have to answer to both the President and the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory.

Aidou Hanabusa, on the other hand, was skipping out on his regular class with his cousin in tow. The duo had been conversing among themselves outside, when they sensed a group of approaching vampires intruding on the academy's grounds.

At the same point of time, Kaname turned towards the rest of his classmates and said. "I have a favor to ask from everyone of you here ... "

Everyone within the night class stood, and turned towards their leader as they responded with utmost respect. "Its' our pleasure to be able to serve under you, Kaname-sama. "

Takuma was beaming; Rima and Shiki nodded to Kaname's words. Only Ruka was frowning, but still she refrained herself from commenting otherwise on Kaname's actions. Instead, she only expressed her concerns on what the council might do in response to their intervention upon the situation. Kaname only responded by telling her to trust his judgement, while staring at the blonde female vampire in expectation.

Eventually, Ruka caved and gave in to the pureblood's request and thus the whole night class left the classroom and headed for the direction where they sensed their intruders heading for.

"So what are we going to do now, Hanabusa? " Akatsuki questioned, as he glanced over at his cousin for a response.

However, before the blue-eyed blond vampire could respond. The duo were interrupted by the sound of someone calling out for their attention from above, the two of them had been standing directly under the window of the day-class library building. They had thought the area to be deserted by then, what they had not been expecting was that there were still people staying within the said building.

"Akatsuki! Duck!"

"What the hell ...?! " Akatsuki uttered aloud, as he leaped out of the way to avoid himself being hit by something or rather someone.

"Bloody hell, Akane! Are you trying to murder me?! " Akatsuki complained aloud, once he realized that the person whom had jumped from the third storey was none other than one of their time-traveling guest from the future.

"I apologized, but I did shouted a warning to you. Didn't I? " Akane responded, as she pulled herself up into a standing position after landing safely onto the ground level.

"... " Akatsuki fought the urge to roll his eyes at the girl's words, and was about to come back with a sharp retort of his own when he realized that his cousin's attention was no longer upon him. Instead, the blond was now glaring heatedly at a day-class girl whom had just exited from the library building looking exceptionally at ease.

"Wakaba Sayori! What the hell are you doing, staying out this late? Wasn't it already time for curfew, several minutes ago?! " Aidou gritted out in frustration, upon sighting the girl on campus at this late of time. He had no idea why, but somehow he felt himself fearing for the girl's safety for being out alone at night. Despite the fact that he knew the girl was more than likely to be able to defend herself, if anyone of the night-class members attempted to attack her for blood. Still, the knowledge did nothing to stop him from worrying and frowning over the issue.

"What else could I be doing here in the library, except to do the project that was supposed to be due in another week's time with Akane? " Sayori responded, calmly as she stared up into those attractive blue eyes of the blond vampire. For a moment, she nearly loses herself in those sparkling blue orbs but she managed to pull herself back in time. It would do no good for her to be caught staring into the eyes of a vampire, in a daze-liked manner. Especially, at this point of time whereby she had something else that requires her attention on her mind.

"... Can't you do the project during the day? "

"Impossible, the project are supposed to be done and completed outside of class hours. "

"Then why can't it be done over the weekends? "

"Possible, but this coming weekend neither Akane nor myself could meet up and finalized the project. She had something on, and I have something personal to settle over the weekend too. " Sayori responded, patiently as she tried to ignore the silent vibration of the phone in her skirt's pocket.

"Well then, in that case I'll be in charge of escorting you back to your dormitory every night, until your project with Akane was completed and send in for grading. " Aidou responded, proclaiming himself to be Sayori's personal escort while the girl was out wandering alone at night on school grounds.

"Suit yourself then ... not that it would matters to me much. " Sayori responded, nonchalantly as she took a step forward and headed towards the direction of the Sun Dormitory.

"Was it just me or ... did Aidou just show concern for someone else aside from Kaname-sama? " Akane found herself questioning aloud, as she jabbed the stunned cousin of Aidou Hanabusa with her elbow.

However, there was no response from the commonly known 'Wild-Senpai' for Akatsuki Kain was too stunned for words. This was the first time he had seen Hanabusa talking to a human girl that seriously, usually the blond flirts with them instead of talking to them. Not only that, his cousin was frustrated with a day-class girl being out after curfew and that never happened before. In the past, when they came across any day-class girls whom stayed out after curfew. Hanabusa would start to flirt with them and teased them mercilessly, until the guardians comes along and lectured them on their doings. After which, it would proceeded on to a verbal disagreement between Kiryuu and his cousin.

Now his cousin was showing frustration, and the frustration was brought up by the hidden concern that Akatsuki had sensed hidden underneath the depth of Hanabusa's heart. The others may not have realized it, but he most certainly did. Having being Hanabusa's cousin, and spending most if not all of his childhood days in the blond's presence. He could now read his cousin's feelings and emotions like an open book. Hence, he knew Hanabusa was attracted towards the human girl in more ways than one, and that his cousin was actually trying to hide the little detail from everyone's view. With an inward sigh, he could only hoped that his cousin knew what he was getting himself into by getting attracted to a mere human girl.

"Come on, let's go ... leave him alone. If he wants to play bodyguard and escort to some day-class girls, he's more than welcome to try. " Akatsuki muttered aloud, as he started to depart from the area.

In the meantime, Yuuki's eyes scanned her surrounding area warily. Somehow, the area that she was patrolling just now gave her the creeps. There was something in the air that felt strange to her, and she thought she had saw shadows moving around this part of the school and that was why she had ventured over to inspect the area in detail.

"Excuse me, little girl ... Is this the Cross Academy? " Someone spoke up from behind her, causing Yuuki to nearly stumble and fell from shock.

"So what if it is? " Yuuki shot back in defiance as she pulled out her Artemis rod in defense, there was something about this man's aura that reminded her awfully of the vampires. However, she failed to understand the reason why the Vampires are intruding on the school grounds.

"Oh? So you are a guardian too? In that case, would you be so kind to let me know the whereabouts of the male guardian of the school? " The unknown vampire said, as he smiled creepily down at Yuuki causing the girl to shudder involuntarily.

~to be continued~

Date started: 04/06/09

Date completed: 06/06/09

Date edited: 06/06/09


	21. Chapter 21

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Thanks everyone for the reviews. I'll try to keep myself from repeatedly using the same word, and sometimes I do try to find alternatives by searching through dictionaries online. Well ... but sometimes, I'm multi-tasking so ... ^^;; I'm currently working on a school report at the same time as I wrote the chapter. The next update would be uploaded sometime later as compared to the usual timing as I'm scheduled to work more frequently for this week. Nonetheless, I'll try to update as soon as possible, okay?! Anyway, on with the next chapter :P

For those of you wondering, the changes in Zero would take place slowly and over a period of time, so the night-class members probably won't realized it just yet. Kaname, though would sensed the change in Zero sometime in the next chapter, but because the change is mild so ... its' not very detectable.

---

Chapter 21 - Kaname, Zero and the Vampire Council, Part 2

Yuuki Cross stared up at the intruder uneasily, inwardly she knew they were looking for Zero. However, she failed to understand why these unknown vampires are looking around the school for signs of Zero. Yuuki was about to ask another question, when she felt someone pushing her behind. It was not until she heard the voice of the newcomer speaking up, did she realized it was Zero, himself whom was shielding her from the intruder's range of attack.

"Why are you looking around for me? " Zero questioned, as he block the vampire's attack towards Yuuki easily, and effortlessly.

"Zero, are you alright already? " Yuuki asked, sounding genuinely surprised to find her guardian friend behaving as though he had never being subjected to any form of injuries before.

"Kiryuu Zero, according to the orders issued by the Vampire Council, we are here to arrest you for the murder of the pureblood - Shizuka Hiou. "

"Eh?! " Yuuki's eyes widen in shock, she knew that her friend had not been the one to murder Shizuka. Yet, before she could even get her words out. Zero silenced her with a 'look' of his, and signaled for the intruder to continue speaking.

"We prized the existence of the pureblood as a valuable assets, and yet you went around our back and kill Shizuka Hiou without us noticing until it was too late. Now all you need to do is to surrender yourself to us, and agreed to the idea of being placed on trial in front of the council and if the council are satisfied with your reasons of justifications on the issue. You might very well be pardoned for the sins committed, which I personally find that too 'easy' for you. " The uninvited visitor glared, and the calculating gaze in him caused Zero to react on instincts.

Before Zero realized what had happened, he had ended up crushing the bones of the vampire's fingers. The victimized vampire growled aloud upon realizing what Zero had done, and said.

"How dare you ... " The intruder started, before he started to smirk upon sensing more of his fellow comrades closing in on the two guardians. "Even if you did managed to take me down today, how many of us do you think you are able to defeat? At the end of the day, you would still have to surrender yourself to us. "

No sooner had the fallen vampire finished his words, the rest of the invaders had the two guardians surrounded. Knowing that things are bound to get messy and troublesome, Zero whispered harshly to his fellow guardian friend and said. "Yuuki, leave. This had nothing to do with you, I'll handle them myself. "

"No, I won't leave you alone with them. Not when you'd just recovered from your previous injury. " Yuuki responded, with determination as she steeled herself for the newcomers' possible attack.

Zero sighed inwardly, resigning himself to the fact that Yuuki's decision would not be swayed regardless of how he tried to convince the girl into leaving him alone with the trespassing vampires. For he knew, Yuuki can be really stubborn at times and during those times, nothing that the others tried to tell her would ever make it across to the girl.

The sudden dissipation of a member among the group of unwelcome guests caused several heads to turn towards the direction where the attack had originated from. To the surprise of both guardians, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by the whole group of night-class members.

"Certainly, the council would have known by now that Shizuka Hiou, herself had done quite a number of things that was highly frowned upon by our society over the past few years. Isn't that so? "

The sudden sound of Kaname Kuran's voice caused those servants of the Vampire Council to freeze mid-actions, as they turned towards the new-comer and bowed to the young pureblood with respect.

"K.. Kuran Kaname-sama." They greeted, half with fright and half with respect.

Kaname stared down at them with a mask of indifference, while he continued to speak. "Just because that the existence of pureblood are extremely rare these days, the council deemed it 'right' to subject Kiryuu to some form of penalty? "

"... Kaname-sama, if a pureblood like yourself were to side with them on this matter. We would be unable to accomplish our mission for the day, therefore we sincerely seek your cooperation by staying out on this particular issue. "

Kaname shoot them a look that resembled a cross between annoyance and disdain, as he spoke up once again. "Are you people trying to 'pollute' the environment of the Cross Academy which I've come to treasure and love?! Answer me this, the lackeys of the council. "

"But ... " The head person in charge of the squad attempted to speak, only to find himself subjected to an invisible attack of fury from the irritated pureblood and froze momentarily in shock.

"For the last time I am warning you ... Scram! " Kaname's eyes bleeding red with unmasked fury, as he gritted out the words in frustration.

Seeing no other options available for the time-being, the 'law enforcers' of the council had no choice but to leave the academy grounds without Zero. However, they made it a point to inform Kaname that his actions with regards to this particular issue would be reported to their superiors as accordingly.

Silence reigned, as Yuuki tightened her hold on Zero's sleeves. Somehow, she find Kaname a little too scary for her liking this particular evening. It gave her the creeps and reminded her just how scary a vampire could be. Zero sighed inwardly as he made it a point to throw a look of annoyance towards the dark-haired pureblood, before darting his eyes silently towards Yuuki, reminding the pureblood of the fact that Yuuki was startled by his sudden display of raw and unmasked fury that revealed his vampire nature's for all to see.

Catching on immediately, Kaname hurried to get his aura under control. Somehow, his newly acquired powers after taking in quite a significant amount of Shizuka's blood had yet to blend in fully with his own. Therefore, it had a tendency to leak when he was feeling too agitated or too relaxed.

"Are you alright? " Kaname found himself asking, as he approached the two guardians. This must have been his first time inquiring on the welfare of the silver-haired guardian in front of all the members of the night-class, usually he refrained from displaying his concern for the hunter in public, unless it was among his usual socializing group of friends.

His inquiry was met by silence, but the look in those lilac eyes of Zero had told him enough. The silver-haired hunter was looking at him with hints of slight annoyance, commenting on his nosiness in this particular issue. Careful to keep his face free from any reactions, he shifted his glance towards the female guardian instead. Then, he allowed a small smile to grace his features as he regarded the girl fondly.

"Kaname-senpai, Zero didn't do it! " Yuuki was saying, but the pureblood silent her with a simple nod of acknowledgement.

Kaname then said, "I know ... Trust me, I'll handle this. Don't be worried, it'll be fine. "

Meanwhile, Zero had to refrain from rolling his eyes at the pureblood's words and at Yuuki's trusting expression. Of course, things will be fine eventually. The fact that it was Kaname, a pureblood whom stepped forth and defend him from the 'sins' of killing Shizuka - the council would had no choice but to let him off the hook. While that would helped to set Yuuki's mind at peace, it only served to annoy him as he knew it was Kaname whom killed Shizuka.

Why did he willingly take up the rap for something which the pureblood had done, he had no idea. Perhaps, it was due to the fact that he knew even if he were to tell the truth, nobody would have believed it. If that was to be the case, then why should he bother with the task of explaining himself? And since, Kaname seemed to have it in mind to help him cleared his name. Then by all means, the pureblood was more than welcome to go ahead and proceed on with it.

"Come on, Yuuki ... let's go. There's other places on campus that needs to be inspected, before we could call it a night. " Zero started, dragging the adopted daughter of the Chairman after him and leaving the whole group of night-class members staring after them.

"Hmph! Such an ungrateful chap! Kaname-sama have just went up against the council for his sake, and he just walked off without a word?! The least he could have done was to show his appreciation to what Kaname-sama had done for him, isn't that common sense?!" Someone among the night-class members commented aloud, unhappily.

"That's enough!" Kaname's voice cuts in smoothly, his features remained a mask of indifference making it hard for the majority of the night-class members to guess his thoughts.

"Takuma, bring them back for classes. I need to go and pay the Chairman a visit, before Yuuki reported today's incident to him. " Kaname started.

"Sure!" Takuma responded, good-naturedly as he beckoned for the rest of the night-class to follow his lead.

---

"If you are waiting around for me thank you for your efforts at speaking up in my defense, you can jolly well forget about it because I am not going to thank you for that. " Zero Kiryuu spoke up, upon catching sight of the dark-haired pureblood waiting for him just outside the Sun Dormitory building following the end of his patrolling trip.

Kaname shrugged, as he commented nonchalantly. "I know you won't thank me for that, since you aren't the one whom killed Shizuka. Technically, I should even be the one to thank you for not ratting out on my part in the murder of Shizuka Hiou. "

Zero snorted, as he responded in a half-mocking manner. "Honestly, nobody's going to believe it even if I were to tell the truth. So why bother? If they find it convenient to simply push all the blame of Shizuka's death upon me, they're more than welcome to do just that!"

For a while, neither spoke as they basked themselves under the moonlight and enjoying the tranquil silence that settled between them.

"Zero ..."

"What?!" The silver-haired hunter responded, shifting his foot around uneasily. Even after weeks of private interaction with the dark-haired pureblood, he still felt uneasy whenever Kaname addressed him by his given name. Especially in the case of having the pureblood addressing him by his given name with such a gentle tone that's usually reserved for Yuuki, somehow it felt weird to him when the pureblood leader of the night-class treated him with such gentleness.

"Keep an eye out on Yuuki, let me know if she started to behave strangely. " Kaname said eventually, initially he was contemplating on seeking Zero's help in taking care of Yuuki. Then he remembered, even without the need for him to ask. The silver-haired hunter would still look after and take care of Yuuki, since Zero probably considered Yuuki to be his adopted sister. The relationship between Zero and Yuuki were so good that it used to make him jealous, whenever he chanced upon the sight of the duo interacting with one another.

Even now he still felt the jealousy that arises in him whenever he noticed the way his beloved sister was interacting with Zero, the only differences is that he would no longer vent his frustration upon the silver-haired hunter for being too close to his beloved girl. After all, with his recently developed attraction towards Zero, he was having a hard time deciphering just whom exactly was the subject of his jealousy.

"Is that all? If so, I would like to get back to my dormitory room for some rest before going for class later. " Zero questioned back in return, despite having rested for several days in a row before. He still felt tired and lethargic, probably because he had quite a number of things on his mind over the past few days that bothered him so much so that he had not really slept much since all he did was to toss and turn, throughout the night.

Kaname shrugged, and Zero took it as a sign and permission for him to depart from the area. Zero was half-way up the stairs and heading towards his room, when he felt the urge to slap his forehead in annoyance. He did not just took Kaname's shrug as a sign of permission to leave the area, did he?! Certainly, with his usual behavior he would have just walked off following the end of the pureblood's words, isn't it? Then why did he even bother to ask if the pureblood had finished speaking to him? If Kaname had not given any form of response, would he stayed on?!

The sudden realization that he was starting to think of the pureblood by the name 'Kaname' instead of 'Kuran', just served to aggravate him more. For it just served to remind him how he was getting used to having the said vampire hovering around him, all the time.

In the past, the sheer sight of Kaname Kuran would pissed him off but now, he no longer felt that irritated and instead, sometimes he found himself wondering just what exactly was the pureblood doing. True, whenever he crossed path with the said vampire, the annoyance would still exist between them. The only difference was that instead of the annoyance being directed towards Kaname, it was directed to himself. He was irritated by his own bewildering reactions and behaviors in front of the pureblood, as compared to what Kaname was doing to him.

He knew he was getting himself attracted to the pureblood, and that annoyed him greatly because he was trained to hate them not to 'like' them. Then, there was the event of Kaname 'molesting' him throughout the ice-skating session and although, it disturbed him but he still tolerated the pureblood's actions. Up until this point of time, he had been forced-kissed by the pureblood twice and yet instead of feeling angry like he should be, he found himself enjoying the kiss despite the brutality of it.

"Damn, Master Touga would have a fit if he knew what had happened between Kaname and myself over the past few weeks ... " Zero felt the urge to groan aloud, upon the remembrance of his master's words. If he had not been fraternizing with the vampires then, he certainly was now.

---

"Hanabusa, are you serious about wanting to stay behind? " Akatsuki Kain asked, frowning as he took in the sight of his cousin burying and hiding himself underneath the covers of the blanket.

"Yes, I am serious about not going to the Council with you people. So if you are going, please hurry along and don't keep the rest of them waiting! " Aidou Hanabusa muttered aloud, still hiding himself from his cousin's viewing range.

This evening, the rest of the night-class members would be accompanying their pureblood leader to the council to straighten things out with them, on the issue of Shizuka's death. Usually he would have expressed his support for the pureblood without a second's hesitation, but recently he was starting to get a little uneasy. Then again, it was understandable since he did chanced upon his beloved pureblood leader killing another.

Several rooms down from Aidou Hanabusa, the twins were hanging around Akane's room while waiting for the girl to ready herself for a visit to their Daddy. Kaname had finally given the permission for the twins to spend the weekends together with Zero, hoping that it would helped to snap Subaru out from his guilty conscience state of mind.

"Subaru ... whom do you think the bottle of blood belongs to? " Akira asked in a whisper, not wanting to risk detection from their adopted elder sister unnecessarily.

"Huh? Bottle of blood? " Subaru stared uncomprehendingly at Akira for a second, causing the younger boy to sigh in response as he proceeded on to elaborate on his statement.

"The bottle which I broke the other day at Daddy's room ... "

"... " Silence was the only response which Akira had received from his twin, for Subaru's face had started to pale upon the mention of that incident.

Unlike Akira, Subaru did know or rather he did have a faint idea as to the owner of those blood which Akira had accidentally spill on that day. The scent of the blood reminded him awfully of that pureblood woman, who was drinking from his Daddy's neck when he chanced upon them the other day. It was the same sight that caused his powers to overflow and leaked out from sheer fury, and when his Daddy shot that woman twice so as to allow Akane and him to escape while the woman was distracted - it was then that Subaru caught a whiff of that female's blood scent.

"Father seemed adamant to have Daddy ingesting those blood too ... that's why he looked upset when he noticed that I have broke the bottle of blood by accident. Why do you think Father was reacting in that manner? " Akira asked, but he did not wait around for his twin to respond before coming to his own conclusion with regards to the matter.

"Ah! I know, the blood that I spill must have been from the same vampire that turned Daddy. Otherwise, Father wouldn't be reacting in that manner! Since it takes the blood of a master to prevent an ex-human from descending into the realm of insanity. Yes, that must be it! " Akira proclaimed, sounding extremely proud of himself that caused Subaru to sigh and turned away from his twin sibling.

Sometimes Subaru could not helped but wonder, just how exactly Akira had managed to grow up with such optimistic outlook on life, considering just how complicated their surroundings were.

The reappearance of Akane from the attached bathroom draw the twins conversation to a close, or rather it was an one-sided conversation since Subaru did not bothered to respond and Akira was practically talking to himself, all these while.

Aidou Hanabusa was taking a walk around the school's vicinity when he caught sight of a familiar figure heading towards the school gate. The said figure was none other than Wakaba Sayori, and since it was stated in the school rules that anyone whom wished to leave the academy grounds must registered with the school office in prior. Aidou was genuinely surprised to find the girl leaving campus at this late of time.

Although it was a weekend, but the curfew for the day-class students that resided within the school dormitory building remained the same. Nobody should be out from their room after evening hours arrived, with the sole exception of the school guardians' and the night-class members. Since, technically the night-class students would be free to roam about the school building once the evening comes around.

Despite the fact that Aidou knew this is not the first time he had caught Wakaba Sayori loitering outside of the dormitory after curfew, but this was indeed the very first time that he noticed the girl leaving campus at such hours of the day. Knowing for a fact that the vampires are free to roam about during this period of time, and it was partly because of his curiosity and constant worry for the girl's safety. Aidou decided to follow Sayori silently from behind, taking it upon himself to act as the girl's bodyguard.

Wakaba Sayori sighed inwardly as she could not helped but noticed a certain blond vampire following her from behind silently, ever since she stepped out of the academy's ground. Usually, she might not have minded the fact that the blond had opted to follow her around but this evening, she would be meeting up with her elder brother to discuss certain things that she absolutely does not want the blond to hear about.

'Is there anything that I could do to keep him away?' Sayori could not helped but frowned in deep thoughts.

For a while, Sayori contemplated on the idea of taking a bus to town instead of walking over but she soon discarded that idea. After all, whom was to say for certainty that Aidou Hanabusa would never hopped on the bus? Besides, she had the image of Aidou Hanabusa gaining himself more fan-girls if he took a bus ride to town. Surprisingly, somehow she felt a twinge of annoyance upon the sheer idea of that possibility, much to her own confusion.

'Why am I feeling annoyed by the possibility of him gaining himself more supporters? It never did bothered me in the past, right?' Sayori could not helped but asked herself, in confusion. Deciding to just classify the slight twinge of annoyance under the fact that she finally had had enough of the fan girls coming towards her and bothering her on the subject of her non-existent relationship with Aidou Hanabusa, Sayori opted to disregard the matter entirely and continued her walk down the path that would leads her towards the direction of the town.

---

An hour later, Aidou Hanabusa returned to the school in a generally bad mood. He had followed Sayori out to town fearing for the girl's safety only to find the girl meeting up with some unknown guy, in a coffee house behaving rather cozy with one another. He know he might have over-reacted on the issue, since it remained a possibility of Sayori being involved with someone else in a romantically sense from outside despite having to stay on campus, practically all the time. Still, it did nothing to change the fact that he was upset and incredibly so.

Part of him had wanted to stalk up to the duo and dragged Sayori off upon catching sight of the way they had behaved in one another presence back in town, just now. The only thing that prevented him from acting on impulse was his logic and his knowledge of the fact that they were from two different world. Sayori belongs to the world of humans, whereas he belonged to the night society of the vampires. There would be no hope for them to be together, that much he knew and hence his reason for trying to neglect his own growing attraction towards the human girl.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he failed to realize the fact that he was approaching the direction of the Chairman's residence until he heard the unmistakable sound of Yuuki calling out for his attention. Blinking twice, he snapped himself out from his thoughts only to realize that the female guardian was questioning on his reason for coming over.

"I'm hungry, is there anything to eat around here? " He responded, and without waiting for an invitation he made his way through the front door of the Chairman's residence and proceeded to drop himself on an available seat that surrounded the dining table.

It was not until he settled himself down comfortably on the seat, did he finally realized that he now had several pairs of eyes upon himself regarding him with unmasked curiosity.

"What?! Why are the whole lot of you people staring at me?! " Aidou could not helped but snapped aloud in annoyance.

"I thought you said you aren't coming over to join us for dinner? Then why are you here now? " Akane started, sounding extremely curious about the blond vampire's sudden decision to join them for dinner at the Chairman's.

Aidou flushed crimson, red from embarrassment as he forced himself to respond in a calm-like manner. "Well, I'm hungry and since I was just around the vicinity so I thought I could try my luck out and see if there's any possibility of me finding some food for myself here, instead of having to head over to the cafeteria. "

Following the end of Aidou's response, the time-traveling trio stared at one another in unison before Akane pretended to cough while she hide the laughter that was threatening to erupt from her. Subaru, on the other hand, stared down at his own plate where his untouched piece of cake remained sitting innocently in front of him. Akira, on the other hand, just sighed before making a move to speak up.

" ... Honestly, Uncle Aidou ... You really need to stop the bad habit of venting your frustration by eating whenever you had problems in paradise. Its' unhealthy." Akira's sudden words startled the blond so bad that he nearly choked on the piece of cake he was being served by Yuuki, while waiting for the male guardian to cook them their dinner.

"What the hell?! " Aidou started as he stared at the younger boy in shock, before he recovered himself and said firmly. "I do not know what you are talking about! "

Akane snorted, before interjecting. "Oh please! Who are you trying to kid?! You are glaring at your cake with venom and stabbing it as though its' your loathsome arch-nemesis! Although, I had no idea what you have on your mind ... but it reminded me awfully of a certain friend of mine when he's jealous about something or someone."

Aidou Hanabusa spluttered un-intelligently, his cheeks turning red from both embarrassment and indignation at Akane's words before deciding that it was pointless to get himself worked up over the fact that Akane had managed to see through his mask of disguise. Therefore, he turned his attention back to the piece of cake sitting in front of him again. Only this time, instead of glaring at it with venom, he was staring sullenly down at it.

"Alright, enough chattering! No talking during meal-times, remember?! " Zero interrupted, as he came out from the kitchen placing a plate of lasagna in front of them.

"Yes, Daddy! " The twins chortled in unison, before requesting for more ketchup sauce.

Akane, meanwhile sprinkled some black pepper on her portion before scooping up a mouthful and chew upon it without hesitation. Aidou, on the other hand, stared down at his share of lasagna in skepticism before staring up at the silver-haired guardian and asked in a sarcastic manner.

"Are you sure this is edible, Kiryuu? "

Zero felt his eyebrow twitching slightly at the blond's words but he wisely remained silent. No point getting into an argument with the blond over something as trivial as the issue of 'food'. Deciding to disregard the blond entirely, Zero settled down at the dining table with his own portion and started to dig into his meal as well. Yuuki followed suit soon after, and he made sure that he had set aside some of the remaining lasagna for the Chairman's consumption at a later stage of time.

Dinner progressed on uneventfully, nothing much had happened unless you counted the incident of Aidou stealing Akira's share of dessert that got the younger twin upset as a disaster. The boy had wailed and complained loudly to Zero that his Uncle Aidou had stolen his mango pudding, which ended up with Zero placating the boy with his own share of the dessert.

---

After dinner, the twins huddled close to their daddy and even offered to help the silver-haired hunter out in the cleaning of the dishes. That ended up with Yuuki, Akane and Aidou seated on the sofa couch in silence, and randomly flipping through the channels on the television set. Unable to bear with the silence, Yuuki took a deep breath as she gathered up her courage to ask.

"So Akane, how's your project with Yori coming along? "

Akane blinked before registering the girl's question, and responded. "It's fine, I figured the whole project would be completed in another two days' time. "

Yuuki nodded, before turning towards the blue-eyed blond vampire and asked the first question that pops into mind. "So ... Aidou-Senpai, why aren't you with the rest of the night-class members today? "

"Nothing ... just don't feel like going out today ... " Aidou responded vaguely, not wanting to reveal too much of the reason behind his reluctance to join the rest of them at the council's meeting this evening.

"Eh? But I thought I saw Uncle Aidou leaving school earlier on ... " This coming from Akira, whom had just emerged from the inside of the kitchen during the period of time whereby his daddy was conversing with his elder twin sibling.

"What?!" Upon Akira's statement, Yuuki turned accusing eyes upon the blond and demanded for the fellow vampire to provide a reason for his leaving the academy without the permission granted by the Chairman.

"... Then perhaps, I thought I should inform you about your friend leaving campus without the Chairman's permission in advance too?! " Aidou snapped in irritation at the female guardian, stunning Yuuki for a moment before recognition dawns in on the absent-minded guardian.

"You mean, you saw Yori-chan leaving the academy just now? "

Aidou rolled his eyes in response at Yuuki's reaction, before gritting out a single term of 'Yes'.

"Then ... does that means that the reason why you left school earlier on, had something to do with Yori? " Yuuki continue to pressed on the issue, whereas Aidou continue to remain tight-lipped and refusing to provide the curious female guardian with any form of response.

"But why did Yori leave school without telling me in advance? Did she leave alone? " Yuuki continued to ask, despite knowing the fact that Aidou was going to ignore her.

Perhaps, the blond was getting irritated by Yuuki's constant questioning that he snapped. "Are you done with the endless questions?! Yes, she did leave the academy alone! That's why I thought I should follow her from behind, in case anything were to happen! As for why did she leave the school alone and without telling you in advance, I had no idea! So stop bothering me with these questions, go and ask her yourself! She's your friend, isn't she?! "

With that said, Aidou Hanabusa huffed and stalked out of the Chairman's residence leaving the female guardian gaping after him in shock.

Yuuki's mouth opened and closed in shock and surprise, but no words were formed. Eventually, she turned towards the only other remaining occupant in the room and asked. "What do you think happened to him?"

Akane shrugged, and replied. "No idea ... "

"Well ... that's why I said its' trouble in paradise! " Akira then piped up, causing Yuuki to stare at the boy in surprise as she blurted out in shock.

"Certainly, you don't mean that Aidou-Senpai is interested in Yori ... in that manner?! "

Akira just shrugged, not bothering to respond to the female guardian's query. Instead, he decided to just leave it to Yuuki's imagination and who knows? He might end up enjoying a free show of entertainment of his Aunt Yuuki trying to match-make his Uncle Aidou with Aunt Sayori.

Akane sighed inwardly as she turned away from the group, and focused her attentions on the TV commercial that was showing on screen. It was another commercial video featuring their resident night-class part-time models, Touya Rima and Shiki Senri. Zero Kiryuu, just stared at Yuuki and Akira in bewilderment before turning away from the duo and decided to join Akane in front of the television set, instead of spending his time trying to figure out just what exactly was going on in the minds of Yuuki and Akira.

Subaru, on the other hand, just sighed and shake his head in defeat upon catching sight of the mischievous glint in the eyes of his twin brother.

Yuuki, meanwhile, was seriously contemplating on the possibility of Aidou Hanabusa being interested in her friend in a romantically sense of manner. Deciding to leave things be for the moment, and continued to observe the blond's actions around them for the time-being before coming to draw any conclusion with regards to the matter.

~ to be continued~

Date started: 06/06/09

Date completed: 10/06/09

Date edited: 10/06/09


	22. Chapter 22

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Sorry that it took this long to get this chapter done, but between Working, Studying, Writing School Reports, Writing and fitting in my Flute and Music Theory Lesson. I'm fully packed for the week. ^^;; The next chapter might be delayed as well, for I had yet to wrap up my group projects, and the individual audit reports had yet to be done and written up.

---

Chapter 22 - Party of the Night Society, Part 1

Wakaba Sayori returned to the academy with a heavy heart, the conversation with her elder brother had not gone well at all. Their meeting today was supposed to be a discussion session about the issue of the Kiryuu twins, but somehow it had ended up with her brother pressing her on the subject of her future allegiance.

Her father, Wakaba Hisashi was currently working together with Fujiwara Haruto - the head for the hunters' branch of the famous 'Fujiwara' clan. Her mother, on the other hand, worked under Fujiwara Yumi - the head for the vampires' branch of the clan itself.

The name of the Fujiwara is so foreign and yet so familiar to many of the vampires and hunters alike. The 'Fujiwara's were special, their ancestry had started out pure and untainted, placing them on par level with the Kuran and the Hiou. However, over the last few centuries it had been brought down to the level of an aristocrat. Reason being the lack of pureblood females then, had resulted in most if not all of the family members to settle down with the next best alternative - the nobles.

During which period of time, a few of them that were leaning more towards the pacifism ideals had ended up settling down in the human world by suppressing their vampires' powers and nature with the use of an unique spell. The said spell would affect not just themselves, but also the future offspring of theirs'. In which, their powers of the vampires' nature would not be awakened unless they allowed themselves to be bitten by another vampire.

Among these members, one of them in particular had fallen in love with not just a typical human but also a member of a well-respected clan of hunters'. Inevitably, that resulted in the split of the family ancestral lineages categorizing them into the three sectors, namely - Vampires; Humans and lastly, the Hunters.

In order to maintain the peace and balance between the family itself, each branch of the clan were to elect a clan head of their own. These clan heads would meet up twice a year, during the family reunion meeting to discuss on the various issues and matters that they had on hand to deal with.

During the family reunion sessions, the rest of the family members would get to meet and interact with one another as well. The vampires and the hunters would know which branch of the family they were from upon sighting one another, but the humans would not know anything about the matter until they came of age and that it was time to select a new clan head for their branch of the family. Therefore, rules were set and both the hunters' and vampires of the family were forced to comply and tolerate each other presence during such functions.

Zero Kiryuu's mother, Fujiwara Yukari had descended down from the lineage of the hunters' side of the family. Therefore, Zero and Ichiru could very well be considered as part of the Fujiwara family as well. However, the balance between the two sides of the family were shattered when Shizuka Hiou came and wiped out the Kiryuu clan. Ichiru was taken by Shizuka then, and Zero was brutally turned. That incident ended up resulting in the shattering of the peace and quiet within the clan of the 'Fujiwara' as both the hunters and the vampires' branch of the family wanted to gain guardianship rights to the boy.

Eventually, it was Kaien Cross' intervention on the situation that finally restored the fragile peace agreement between both sides of the family. When it was heard that Kaien Cross had decided to set up a school that promotes the ideals of pacifism between both the vampires and the hunters, Sayori was send into the school to keep an eye out on Zero and that she was told to report whatever events that she sighted or hear with regards to the silver-haired teen to her parents on regular basis.

During the first six months, she reported the events on regular basis. However, after that initial six months had passes by the regular updates and reports slowed down. Eventually, it ended up with Sayori reporting the events only if her parents' called her to inquire on the situation. Otherwise, she would simply keep the information to herself and if her parents' asked about her irregular updates on Zero's situation these days, she would just came up with random excuses that had something to do with school work.

The reason behind her sudden lack of updates to her parents' on the situation involving Zero in school, was due to the fact that she had discovered the reason why she was send into the school by chance during one of the school holidays when she had been home visiting. Her father had called her aside one day, informing her to keep an eye on Zero and it would be best if she just stand back and observed the events. Under no circumstances was she allowed to involve herself with the event that was taking place, and she was to report each and everything that she came to witness to the hunters' association, without fail.

Her mother, on the other hand, had told her otherwise. According to her mother, she was supposed to be protecting Zero from harm. Being floored by the feeling of confusion then, she had failed to react. Since then, her mind was in a chaotic mess and even up until this point of time, she had yet to figure out just whose' order did she had it in mind to obey. Should she followed the protocol and standards set by her father, or should she just obeyed her mother's words and that was to protect Zero under all situations?

It seems like her dilemma was detected and sensed by her elder brother, during their earlier meeting at the coffee house. When her brother brought up the subject, he had told her to consider things properly and carefully before making a decision. Then he had further added on that she need not just followed whatever their parents had told her to do blindly, and that she could reacted and based her decision on her own judgement. Her allegiance should lies with no one but herself, and whether or not does she want to protect or observe Zero Kiryuu is entirely up to her own choice.

Sayori sighed, as she wondered why must her parents served under different superiors for it just make things so complicated for her.

She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she failed to realize just where exactly was she going, it was not until she heard the unmistakable sound of Yuuki calling out for her attention, did she finally realized that she was heading for the direction of the Moon Dormitory instead of the Sun Dormitory.

"Yuuki ... " Sayori started, as she turned around to face her friend who seemed rather surprise by her presence near the Moon Dormitory since she had always keep it in mind to stay away from the said building.

"Yori-chan, what are you doing out here so late in the evening? " Yuuki said, as she regarded Sayori with a frown marring her features.

"Ah ... I just got back from the town and was on my way back to the dormitory. However, it seems like I must have taken a wrong turn around the corner just now, thus ending up with me heading for the direction of the Moon Dormitory instead of the Sun Dormitory building for girls." Sayori responded, inwardly berating herself for not paying attention to where she was heading for.

"Oh I see ... and here I thought, perhaps you are heading to the Moon Dormitory to look for Aidou-Senpai. " Yuuki commented aloud in a sheepish-like manner, directing the comment more to herself than to Sayori.

Still, the comment failed to escape from Sayori's keen sense of hearing and thus, the hazel-brown haired girl cocked her head slightly to the side as she addressed the sheepish looking female guardian.

"Yuuki, what on earth makes you think that I'm here to look for Aidou? "

"... " Silence was the only response she received from Yuuki, before the guardian hurriedly change the subject turning the topic of conversation away from a certain blond vampire. Instead, Yuuki inquired Sayori about the girl's reason for venturing out into town, earlier on in time.

Though feeling puzzled by Yuuki's behavior, Sayori did not made an attempt to press the chocolate-brown haired female for a response instead she just went along with the change of topic and responded.

"I was out in town meeting up with my elder brother ... "

Upon Sayori's response, Yuuki widen her eyes as she stared at her friend in surprise. "You have a brother?"

Sayori blinked twice, before nodding in response. "Yes, I have an elder brother ... Is anything the matter?"

Yuuki hurriedly shakes her head in response, inwardly wondering whether or not was that the reason that resulted in Aidou Hanabusa's bad mood, earlier on during the dinner session at the Chairman's.

"No ... nothing's the matter, I'm just surprised cause I thought you only had a sister ... " Yuuki responded, as she plastered on her most innocent looking expression while addressing her friend's query.

"... I see ... " Sayori responded, regarding Yuuki with intent for a moment before turning away and started to head for the direction where the Sun Dormitory was situated.

Meanwhile, Yuuki Cross heaved a sigh of relief upon the sight of her friend's departure. Somehow, the look of intent in Sayori's gaze when it was centered upon herself always caused her to tense up, subconsciously. It always makes her feel as though she was being subjected to a X-ray inspection check, and that her friend could see through her inner thoughts easily.

---

Aidou Hanabusa sighed as he turned away from the window, his expression unreadable. He had trouble deciphering his own feelings at this point of time, all that he was aware was that annoyance played a big part in his current dark mood. Part of him was annoyed at himself for being attracted to the human girl, Wakaba Sayori, despite knowing the fact that nothing could possibly happened between them. Another part of him was annoyed by the possibility of the girl having a human boyfriend outside of school, because somewhere deep underneath his heart he wanted the girl to belong to no one else but himself.

The sudden realization of just how vastly his attraction for the human girl had been, caused the usually cheerful blond to groan aloud with dread.

'Shit! I am so 'dead' ... Of all the possible candidates to be interested in establishing a relationship with, I just have to pick a human girl.' Aidou Hanabusa thought gloomily to himself, but there was nothing that he could have done to put a stop to his growing attraction towards Sayori. Not when he had been literally ordered to pay close attention to the girl's activities on a daily basis, under the orders of his beloved pureblood - Kaname Kuran.

The sudden entrance of his cousin, Akatsuki Kain, draw his attention away from his thoughts as he turned inquisitive eyes upon the newcomer.

"Yes, Akatsuki? Is there anything that you required from me? "

"... Yes, there is indeed someone whom needed something from you but that person is not me. " Akatsuki responded, as he handed over the phone gadget to his cousin.

"Who's that on the other end of the phone? "

"Your father, somehow he claimed to say that you are unreachable and thus decided to call me instead. " Akatsuki responded, nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders.

"... I see, my phone battery's flat. " Aidou responded, offhandedly.

Bracing himself mentally for the possible nagging conversation that was to come in time, Aidou raised the slim blue phone gadget to his ears as he greeted his father politely.

His father spend five minutes of the conversation lecturing him on his lack of insight to have his phone battery fully charged at all times, and another five minutes questioning him on the well-being of their pureblood leader before cutting into the main reason for the call.

"I see. Yes, I will inform Kaname-sama about it. Alright, I'll try but no guarantee. We both know how much Kaname-sama detested the idea of socializing. Yes, I know. What?! Honestly, you cannot be serious about this ... Yes, I understand that he would not object to the idea but ... Okay, Fine! I know ... I'll try, alright?! Excuse me, Mother-dearest! Are you aware of what you are saying?! No! There's no way am I going to agree to that idea! Mother, I am not interested in getting myself tied down with a family at this stage of time. I'll let you know when I had the idea or notion, in mind alright?! Until then, please leave the issue alone and I do not wish to have the subject brought up for discussion again!"

Akatsuki observed the many times whereby his cousin had rolled his eyes at whatever that was being said on the other end of the phone, throughout the twenty minutes of the conversation and he started to grow worry over the possibility of his cell phone being frozen by his cousin. Inwardly, he heaved a sigh of relief upon the sight of the conversation being ended and Hanabusa handed the phone back to him.

"So ... what's up?"

Hanabusa threw him a look of annoyance before responding. "Nothing's up, with the exception that there's going to be a party being held in the underground estate that my family owned in town tomorrow evening and that I was supposed to invite and persuade Kaname-sama into joining us for the party. "

"... That wasn't all there was to it, right? "

Aidou Hanabusa rolled his eyes upon his cousin question, and proceeded to growl aloud. "My parents had it in mind to introduce one of my younger sister to Kaname-sama as a potential partner to spend his life with ... In other words, a match-making attempt. "

"Oh ... I see, then what was the reason behind your agitation towards the end of the conversation? "

"That was apparently my mother wanting to know if I am ready to settle down yet ... and that she had quite a number of female candidates from well-respected noble families waiting to be introduced to me. " Aidou responded, with another roll of his eyes.

"Another match-making attempt for you then ... so what are you going to do? "

"Nothing. I'm not going to do anything. " Aidou responded, sounding terse as he turned away from his cousin's inquiring gaze.

Akatsuki observed his cousin quietly for a second, before opening his mouth to speak. "Hanabusa, I hope you know what you're doing. The excuses that you are using right now would not work in a long run, one of these days the adults are just going to make the decision on your behalf and you won't get a say in the matter. In the meantime I'll go and inform Kaname-sama on the issue of the upcoming party organized by your father, somehow I had a feeling that you aren't keen on the idea of approaching him, yourself. Speaking of the party, when was it?"

"Tomorrow evening, over at the underground apartment situated within the abandoned building towards the end of North Street 4 of the town. " Aidou responded, in a monotonous like manner as though he was quoting something directly from the textbook.

---

"Zero, can you come in here for a minute? There's something that I need to inform you. " Kaien Cross called out to his ward's attention when the fellow male guardian passes by the Chairman's office.

"Yes? What is it that you need to inform me about? "

Kaien Cross slipped a piece of paper across the table towards Zero's direction, and said. "This came for you from the association. They wanted you to go and supervise a party hosted by a vampire tonight, in town. "

"... " Zero said nothing but stare at the piece of paper that serves as the official notification of order issued by the association in deep thoughts.

"The vampires attending the party tonight are majority from those well-respected bloodlines so I think there shouldn't be a big problem with you supervising them. " The Chairman added, fearing that Zero might want to reject the order but again, like the previous elimination order from the association - Zero would not be given a choice in the matter.

"I'll go. " Zero response came out, sounding curt and the aura enveloping him was dark and unfriendly. Still, against his better judgement the Chairman decided to comment about Zero's mood after his ward had agreed to obey the order issued.

"You don't seemed to be very happy about this ... "

Zero shot the Chairman a look that promised a 'slow death' and growled aloud. "I am indeed not happy about this whole issue, but then again. Since I am not given a choice in this matter, what else can I do aside from accepting and obeying the order that was being issued to me?! "

The Chairman felt himself breaking out in cold sweat as his ward subjected him to another death glare, and started to laugh awkwardly. To which, Zero just rolled his eyes before leaving the office altogether fuming inwardly at the latest order issued to him by the association.

Halfway across the lawn, Zero decided to make a trip to the Moon Dormitory. Seeing as the twins would be spending the weekends with him, and now that he had received an order from the association. Arrangement would need to be made so that the twins would not be left to their own devices, thus creating havoc in the process. Subaru, he was not that worried but Akira ... Zero swear, that younger boy is practically a talking, walking ticking time bomb. You take your eyes away from him for one minute, who knew what that boy could be capable of doing.

With a shake of his head, Zero Kiryuu started to venture towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory. Upon his arrival at the back door of the Moon Dormitory building, the guard stationed at the security checkpoint merely took one look at him before waving him in. No questions were asked, and neither were those questions required.

First and foremost, Zero's role as the school guardian allow him the authority to drop by the Moon Dormitory for a visit, whenever he deemed it necessary. Secondly, ever since the trio's arrival he had been coming over so often that the guards stationed at the security checkpoint of the dormitory would just waved him into the building and turned one blind eye upon his actions towards their resident pureblood. Last but not least, their pureblood leader had already told them to just allow the fellow male guardian to enter the Moon Dormitory whenever the said guardian felt the inclination to visit.

Pushing open the door without even bothering to knock, Zero entered the building calmly and daringly. Unlike Yuuki, who would always tried to hide away from those inquiring gazes of the night-class members present, Zero just regarded them with his usual mask of annoyance.

"A-re? Kiryuu? Are you here to look for Kaname-sama? " The Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory, Takuma Ichijo started as he caught sight of the fellow school guardian while on his way to the kitchen to retrieve some snacks for himself.

"Ichijo, is Akane around? I will need to speak to her too. " Zero decided to ignore the fellow blond vampire's question, and responded with a query of his own.

"Ah ... Kaname-sama's in the lounge, Akane ... I think she's in her room. Why don't you join Kaname-sama in the lounge first? I'll send her over, as soon as possible. " Takuma responded, the fact that Zero had used the term 'too' in his previous question had already provided Takuma with the answer that the fellow hunter would need to speak to both his friend, and his cousin.

---

Kaname Kuran was seated on his 'chair' in the lounging area, flipping through an ancient spell book that was being passes down through his family members for generations when the silver-haired hunter entered the room. Putting aside the book elegantly, ensuring that he had the book cover facing down such that Zero would not be able to tell just what exactly had he been reading up on.

After all, he had no desire in letting anyone discovered that he was researching on the spell that would bond Zero's heart and soul to his own and at the same time, looking up for a spell that would ensure that their future offspring would be born as purebloods instead of a noble. For it is especially important to keep the blood lineage of the 'Kuran' pure. Considering the fact that Zero is an ex-human, and despite his being a pureblood - that alone, was not enough to ensure the fact that his future offspring would be born as pureblood instead of just a mere aristocrat.

Since, it was obvious from the twins' powers that they were indeed purebloods by birth. Then, he figured there must be quite a number of spells that his future spell had decided to cast upon the silver-haired hunter, in time. Seeing that he still had no idea of some of the spells that were being used, then perhaps it was time that he started looking up on them. Despite the fact that many things still remained unresolved and questionable between them, but Kaname knew one thing for certain and that was the fact that he was never going to let Zero out from his sight again.

Silence reigned, as the duo stared one another in the eyes. Neither making a move to speak, slowly they nodded at one another in acknowledgement.

"Ka... Kuran. " Zero greeted, inwardly heaving a sigh of relief when he managed to stop himself from addressing the said pureblood by his given name instead of the family name.

"Zero. " Kaname greeted back in response, inwardly smirking at the silver-haired hunter's reaction when the fellow hunter almost slipped up and greeted him by his given name, instead of the family name. That was a good sign, for it indicated the possibility of the ex-human getting accustomed to the idea of 'warming' up to him or the probable fact of being attracted to him. Since, he too had been through that particular stage while still struggling and coming to terms with his growing attractions towards the silver-haired hunter.

"So what brings you over today? " Kaname started, sounding casual as he beckoned for the fellow hunter to take a seat.

"Later, I'll tell you when Akane's here. " Zero's response came easily enough, as he took a seat on the sofa couch without the need for the pureblood to invite him again.

Meanwhile, Kaname smiled inwardly to himself noting down the relaxing posture of the silver-haired hunter in his presence. Usually, when Zero paid a visit to the Moon Dormitory and was being left alone to deal with him. The said hunter would remained tense and annoyed, but this time around aside from the mild annoyance that was reflected on the hunter's facial expressions. The hunter's body posture is no longer that tensed up, in fact, Zero seemed to be more at ease and relaxed this particular afternoon when compared to the past.

The sudden sound of someone knocking on the door of the lounge seeking entry, jolted both Zero and Kaname out from their own thoughts. Zero straightened himself up into an upright sitting position, while Kaname granted permission for the newcomer to enter the lounge.

The newcomer was none other than Akane herself, and the first thing she did upon her entry into the room was to make herself comfortable on one of the couch seats before addressing the two occupants in the lounge.

"So what's up, Kaname-sama and Zero? "

"Something came up tonight, and I need to find a responsible babysitter for the twins. I am not going to trust the Chairman, because he would not be able to keep them in line, should the twins desired to wreck havoc on academy grounds. " Zero started, cutting straight into the main reason behind his coming over this afternoon. After all, beating around the bushes was never one of his traits when it comes down to the idea of communicating with the others.

"... I assumed this had something to do with the party organized by the Aidou's tonight?" Akane started, arching an eyebrow up as she regarded both her future adoptive parents in expectations.

"I supposed ... Wait a minute, you mean the party hosted in town tonight for the night-society was organized by Aidou's family? " Zero questioned, his eyes widening upon realization of the meaning behind Akane's words.

Akane nodded, "Yes ... to put it simply, the whole night class would be unavailable to babysit the twins for tonight as they were all going to the party organized. "

"Not exactly, you aren't going ... " Kaname pointed out matter-of-factly as he regarded his future adopted daughter calmly.

"... True, I'm not going to the party tonight but I have other things to do tonight ... " Akane tried to argue but her efforts were in vain, as Kaname pointed out the fact that with her ability to multi-task. She could easily occupy the twins and completed her work both at the same time.

"Alright ... Fine then! " Akane relented, sighing out in resignation upon the idea of playing babysitter for the twins again. Seems like ever since her arrival back in time with the twins, she had been playing and fulfilling the role of 'babysitter' for her future adoptive parents.

"Akane, are you sure its' fine? If you really can't watch them this evening, I can always get the Chairman ... although, I didn't really enjoy the idea of having him to look after the twins. " Zero started, frowning as he addressed Akane in an apologetic manner.

"Zero, its' alright. I'm used to it already ... and since Kaname-sama had insisted upon it, then I shall obeyed. " Akane responded, directing a small smile towards the direction of the silver-haired hunter but making it a point to ignore the dark haired pureblood.

"Well ... if there's nothing else, I shall take my leave for now. " Akane said, as she made a move to leave the room.

In response to Akane's words, Kaname only nodded his permission to excuse the girl from his presence.

---

In the meantime, Wakaba Sayori was on her way out of the school grounds when Yuuki stopped her in the process and asked.

"Yori-chan, I heard from the Chairman that you had seeked for his permission to venture out into town this evening. Is that true?"

Sayori sighed inwardly, as she nodded to her friend's question and said. "Yes, its' true. I need to get a gift for a friend of mine who's celebrating her birthday this weekend, though I would be unable to attend her birthday party ... I figured that sending her a gift would helped to put her mind at ease that I still remembered her as a friend. "

"Really?! So what do you intend to get her? "

"No idea, that's why I am heading into town in search for the gift. Otherwise, I would just ordered something from the online catalog. " Sayori answered, trying to sound casual and hoping that Yuuki would not have the idea in mind to tag along with her on the trip to town.

She disliked the idea of lying to her friend, but there was nothing else that she could have done. After all, she cannot possibly blow her cover identity at this point of time. Furthermore, if she were to reveal to the girl that she was heading out in town to collect her mail-ordered weapons, Yuuki would no doubt freaked out on her. If it had been the blond vampire from the night-class, then she would not have to lie. Since she had a feeling that the blond would not have believed her excuse, anyway so why bother?

"I see ... so can I please tag along? " Yuuki asked, directing her best 'puppy-eyes' look at her friend.

"... Alright then ... " Sayori relented, eventually for she did not have the heart to reject the girl whenever Yuuki looked up at her with those pathetic puppy eyes look.

"Yay! Then can we dropped by the ice-cream parlor, later on after the shopping trip? There's a new flavor that has been just introduced to the public, and I've been dying to try it out for days! " Yuuki requested, again with that puppy eyes look of hers' as she looked up at her friend with expectation.

Sayori sighed inwardly but nodded to her friend's request, now she knew why Yuuki had been so adamant at joining her for the trip to town. Looks like Yuuki had yet to get over her phobia of heading out into town, alone. Since Zero would be unavailable to play 'escort' to the female guardian, looks like Yuuki had decided to seek out her companionship while heading into town.

"Well, come along then. "

"So is there any shop you had in mind to get the gift items from? " Yuuki asked, as the two girls boarded the bus that was heading for the direction of the town.

"Probably either 'Gift Paradise' or 'The House of Gift'. I haven't really decide, and if worst come to worse ... there's always the 'Land of Games'. That friend of mine is a game freak ... " Sayori answered, quoting off a few stores' name that pops into mind to satisfy her friend's curiosity.

The rest of the journey into was full of Yuuki asking her questions on the possible choice of gifts, and Sayori pacifying the girl with random gifts ideas that pops into mind. Never in her life, did Sayori literally prayed hard for her friend to remain silent so as to offer her some peace and quiet for she was desperately running out of excuses to keep her friend's curiosity satisfied and sated.

Upon the bus arrival in town, Sayori practically hurried down from the bus making a beeline for the nearest gift store in sight. Yuuki, followed suit soon after and despite being puzzled by her friend's eagerness to start shopping for the gifts. Yuuki decided to cast it aside and classify them under the possibility of her friend suddenly having an inspiration in mind of what to get as a gift for the unknown birthday girl. Never did the thought of her friend was trying to flee and escape from her relentless questionings crossed her mind, at all.

The few minutes Sayori had to herself, while browsing randomly in the shop had managed to calm her significantly. Therefore, by the time Yuuki entered the store, Sayori had the exact idea in mind of how to distract Yuuki while she headed off elsewhere to collect her mail-ordered weapons.

"So, Yori ... have you decided on what to get for your friend's birthday?"

"Ah ... I have a few ideas in mind, so I'm trying to decide between them. Speaking of which, do you mind holding these for me for the time being? I need to go to the washroom for a while. " Sayori said, as she handed a few gift items that she had picked out randomly and told Yuuki to hold them for her while she headed towards the back of the store's area.

Upon passing by the store keeper, Sayori whispered in a soft tone. "Akina-san, please keep an eye on my friend. Let me know if anything happened while I'm not around, I trust that my brother had left something behind for me? "

The store keeper going by the name of Akina, responded. "Sure, I'll keep you informed if anything were to happen with your friend. Anyway, the items that your brother left behind for you were in the back. The items had already been paid by him in advance for you, so remember to pay him back in time. "

"Ah ... I know, thank you. Let him know that I'll be transferring the amount of money to him in about two to three days time." Sayori responded in gratitude.

It was lucky that the first store which she entered after getting off from the bus just happened to be the one which her brother had told her to collect her weapons from. Otherwise, she had no idea just how many more stores did she have to go around with Yuuki before she could get her hands upon those weapons, mostly darts that were laced with anti-vampire poisons that she had ordered with the help from her brother from the official distributors of those anti-vampire weapons that were usually provided for the association's usage, via online methods.

~to be continued~

Date started: 11/06/09

Date completed: 16/06/09

Date edited: 16/06/09


	23. Chapter 23 Part A

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Haha ...yeah, Sayori's a so-called bodyguard of Zero ... and I wouldn't call her a hunter, their family does not served the association directly, because they only obeyed the orders coming from the Fujiwara. However, I guess one could say that she's a free-lance vampire hunter. ^^;;

I apologized for the delay, but I'm really tight on the schedule hence I can't really find time to write the fic. Here's only what I've written thus far, and its' not even 80% completed. However, not wanting to be 'kill' by the readers out there, I've decided to post up what I have for the moment.

---

Chapter 23 - Party of the Night Society, Part 2 (A)

Yuuki Cross had been waiting patiently for her friend, Wakaba Sayori to re-emerge from the washroom, when she noticed a little boy crying near the entrance of the store. Placing the few items which she had been inspecting back on the display cabinet, Yuuki headed towards the little boy and asked.

"Little boy, what's wrong? Why are you crying? "

The boy shakes his head as he continued to cry and made a move to keep a tight grip on Yuuki's coat sleeve. "I want my mommy."

That was all that the boy was willing to say, causing Yuuki to sigh aloud in resignation. Turning towards the shop vendor, Yuuki said.

"I'm taking the little boy out in search for his mother, if Sayori came out from the washroom while I'm away. Tell her not to worry, and that I would go back to the school myself. "

Akina, the shop vendor nodded in response to Yuuki's request though she was frowning when Yuuki led the little boy away to go in search for the little boy's mother.

Sayori, on the other hand, was in the back of the shop's storage room doing a quick check on the weapons that she had ordered in from the supplier online. Two boxes of poison darts, and one box of darts laced with transquilizer. With a nod of satisfaction, Sayori proceeded to place the three boxes of darts into her backpack carefully before hiding them underneath several of her textbooks. Although, she highly doubted that anyone would attempt to inspect or ransack her bag but it was always good to be prepared for the unexpected.

With that settled, Sayori headed back to the front of the shop. However, instead of finding Yuuki in front of the display cabinet. Sayori found someone else, probably another walk-in customer for the day. With a sigh, she headed towards the shop vendor hoping to find some clues as to where her friend had wandered off by herself.

"Akina-san, did my friend tell you where she was heading off for? "

"She said to inform you that she would go back to the school herself, apparently she's off in search for the mother of a lost boy who had wandered into the shop earlier on while you are away. " The shop vendor, Akina responded.

"... I see. In that case, please let her know that I'll be waiting for her in the Ice-Cream Palor should she decided to drop by later." Sayori told Akina, the shop vendor despite knowing that the chances of Yuuki ended up wandering off elsewhere and got herself caught red-handed by a certain silver-haired guardian was far more possible then heading back to the shop, in search for her.

"Sure, I'll be sure to inform your friend if she did made it a point to come back here in search for you. " Akina responded, good-naturedly.

"Good, I'll see you again then. " With that said, Sayori made a move to depart from the store.

---

In the meantime, Yuuki was getting more and more uneasy as she followed the boy around the town aimlessly.

"Boy, are you certain that we are heading towards the right direction? " Yuuki asked, for the surrounding area about her was getting more deserted and eerily silent with the every steps that they took.

The boy walking ahead of Yuuki ignored the questions asked, and instead just continued to walk on. After what seems like an eternity, the boy finally stopped and stood silently in front of an abandoned building.

"Thank you, big sister. I've found my mother...! " The little boy then turned around to face Yuuki, beaming innocently and happily up at the female guardian of the Cross Academy. Then the boy proceeded to give Yuuki a 'hug' to show his appreciation towards the chocolate-brown haired girl.

"Eh?!" Yuuki's eyes widen, despite finding it strange that the boy's mother was hanging around such unpopulated area, heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing the boy's words. "That's good ... " Yuuki started, before she was hit by a sudden dizzy spell and fainted on the spot.

The little boy smirked for a split second, before making his way down towards the underground basement of the abandoned building smugly.

No later than ten minutes later, Aidou Hanabusa and his cousin, Akatsuki Kain had arrived together with the rest of the night-class members came across the unconscious figure of Yuuki Cross sprawled in front of the building entrance-way.

Without a word spoken to one another, the two cousins step aside and create a path-way for their pureblood leader to reach the unconscious girl.

Zero Kiryuu frowned as he refrained himself from cursing aloud while the pureblood, Kaname Kuran stepped up front to examine the unconscious figure of his 'adopted' sister.

"Ah...ah, seems like Yuuki had a knack of getting herself landed in trouble. " Kaname commented, as he picked the unconscious girl up from the ground easily and made his way towards one of the guest rooms situated within the building owned by the Aidou's family.

Zero, on the other hand, was puzzled beyond reasoning as to why the female guardian was loitering around such deserted areas of the town. Still, knowing that this was neither the place nor time to be questioning the unconscious girl about her un-timely presence just outside of a social party hosted by the aristocrat society of the vampires. Zero wisely opted to follow the lead of Kaname Kuran, wordlessly.

---

Date started: 16/06/09

Date completed: 01/10/09

Date edited: 01/10/09 


	24. Chapter 23 Part B

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's Notes: Haha ...yeah, Sayori's a so-called bodyguard of Zero ... and I wouldn't call her a hunter, their family does not served the association directly, because they only obeyed the orders coming from the Fujiwara. However, I guess one could say that she's a free-lance vampire hunter. ^^;;

I apologized for the delay, but I'm really tight on the schedule hence I can't really find time to write the fic. Here's only what I've written thus far, and its' not even 80% completed. However, not wanting to be 'kill' by the readers out there, I've decided to post up what I have for the moment.

---

Part 2(B) of Chapter 23 - Party of the Night Society!

After seeing to the fact that the unconscious female guardian had been placed in one of the empty guest room, kindly arranged by the blue-eyed blond aristocrat member of the night-class, Aidou Hanabusa. Zero decided to make his way towards the hall where the party for the night-society was held, together with the majority of the night-class members. Unlike a certain pureblood who's merely here at the party for the sake of socializing, he, on the other hand had a proper job to do for the hunters' association.

That is to supervise the progress of the party, ensuring the fact that the members of the night-society had abide to the general rules set by the hunters' association with regards to the idea of hosting parties and other events, in areas where human population are common. With Zero's departure with the rest of the night-class members, it was now entirely up to Kaname Kuran, the resident pureblood vampire of the Cross Academy to keep an eye on the unconscious Yuuki.

Blinking once, then twice before bolting upright into a sitting position of the couch. Yuuki Cross scanned her surrounding area warily, until her eyes landed upon the familiar figure of one Kaname Kuran.

"Kaname-sempai?!" Yuuki started, only to be silenced as the pureblood vampire started towards her direction.

"Yuuki, how did you ended up fainting in front of the entrance to the party organized by the Aidou's family?" Kaname questioned, eyeing her strangely.

"Eh?! You mean, I'm now at the venue where the party for the aristocrat members of the night-society was held?" Yuuki gasped, stunned by the pureblood's words.

To which, Kaname whom was about to respond when he found himself interrupted by a knock coming from the outside of the room.

"Come in." Kaname beckoned, sensing that the aura of the offending visitor just happened to be one of his close accquitance, Takuma Ichijo.

"Kaname-sama, just to let you know that the head for the Aidou's family is pressing Hanabusa about when you are going to make your appearance for the night, again. Judging from the situation, it wouldn't be long before Hanabusa lose his ground in front of his father. " Takuma stated, matter-of-factly while nodding towards Yuuki politely from his position just a few steps away from the door.

"I got it, please let them know that I'm coming." Kaname instructed Takuma, before turning towards Yuuki and said.

"Yuuki, please kindly remain in the room until one of us came for you. And speaking of which, please do not answer the door unnecessarily. " Kaname emphasised, before making a move to leave after the departed figure of Takuma Ichijo.

With that said, Yuuki Cross was left all alone in the guestroom of the Aidou's property.

In the meantime, Zero was trying his hardest to ignore the whispers going on about his surrounding area with regards to his presence on behalf of the hunters' association. Throwing a glare towards anyone whom dared to glance his way, Zero stood rigidly by one of the isolated corner of the event hall always keeping an eye on the vampires around him.

"Hey kid! Why are you so stiff? " The sudden feeling of someone slapping him on the shoulder nearly caused him to retaliate by nature, if it was not for the fact that his vampire senses had alerted him of another hunter being near by. He would have freaked out, upon sensing someone approaching him from behind.

"Master Touga, I would greatly appreciate it if you stop sneaking up from behind me. If it was not for the fact that I know from your aura that you happened to be someone whom I knew on personal scale, I would have strike before I could stopped myself in time. " Zero responded, his tone firm and business-like.

Yagari chose to ignore his former student's words, instead questioned. "Why are you here? I hope, you are not here by these aristocrat's invitation."

Zero shoot his master a look of annoyance, before grounding out irritatedly. "As if that would ever happened, of course I'm here by the Association's orders. Otherwise, do you think I would have come to such an event willingly?!"

"Even with that 'thing' around?" Yagari questioned, eyeing his former student critcally.

Zero frowned, searching his memory for any sort of hint that might give him an idea as to what his master was going on about. Before, his doubt finally gave way to realization that his master was actually referring to a pureblood, going by the name of Kaname Kuran.

"Master, have you been interacting with Akira without my knowledge? Somehow, I find it kind of hard to comprehend about your sudden change in addressing manner of that 'thing' which you are referring to. " Zero threw back a retort of his own, ignoring the question which his master had directed towards him.

"Pardon me for using the term 'thing' to describe him, but I can hardly call him any of those names which I would have very much preferred under such circumstances. I had after all, a job to do and I would appreciate it if I do not have a whole cohort of enraged aristocrat after me just because of my usage of one of those unsuitable names which I have in mind for him. " Yagari Touga responded, resisting the urge to growl at his student for picking on his sudden desire to drop the term 'bastard' or 'leech' upon the thought of Kaname Kuran.

"Is that so? Here I thought, that perhaps you had allowed yourself to be sweet-talk by Akira's ability to charm anyone crossing his path." Zero said, sacarstically.

Before Yagari could responded, it was interrupted by a sudden moment of silence and followed by the entrance of the infamous Kaname Kuran.

Then, everyone started to talk again. Only this time, it was to greet their pureblood guest with words of appreciation. Throughout the entire few minutes, Zero had kept his eyes solely fixed upon the dark-haired vampire. Inwardly, he was awed by how patient Kaname was with the aristocrat's behavior. For if it had been him whom was up there standing at where Kaname was, he would have rolled his eyes twice over by now.

The sudden feeling of his master placing a hand atop of his head, forced him to shift his eyes away from the pureblood and turned towards the elder hunter standing by his side.

"Yes, Master? Do you have anything which you would like to say?"

"No, I was just trying to remind you of the fact that your job here today is to play supervisor to these vampires down here. Not to stare at that 'thing' unmovingly like one of those females down there, who just happens to be trapped under the charms of that thing. "

After which, Yagari Touga left Zero alone to stare after his departure in shock and slight annoyance.

'Damn ... does that mean that I was staring at Kaname like one of those love-stuck females loitering about the corner of the party, waiting for him to glance their way?!' Zero thought, resisting the urge to groan aloud from frustration.

Date started: 16/06/09

Date completed: 10/11/09

Date edited: 10/11/09 


	25. Chapter 24

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: Sorry for the long delay that I took in writing this chapter out, but previously I'm down with writer's block and was thinking of dropping my fic writing for some time. However, a quick scan through of the private message received on my account - I gathered that I should perhaps tried to finish this. Do bear with me for the rusty feel on the chapter; I need some time to go back into the authoring mood again.

{Recap - Last time on chapter 23, part B of VotF...}

_'Damn ... does that mean that I was staring at Kaname like one of those love-stuck females loitering about the corner of the party, waiting for him to glance their way?!' Zero thought, resisting the urge to groan aloud from frustration._

Chapter 24 – Party of the Aristocrat Vampire Society Part C

"Hanabusa, kindly stop fidgeting about… I know you are bored out of your mind, but please – tonight's party was organized by your father. You should at least give him some respect." Akatsuki Kain commented as he passes by his fidgety cousin to get to the side of one Ruka Souen.

"Exactly, and while doing that – kindly refrain from staring towards the direction of Kiryuu; I know you are upset about him staring at Kaname-sama at every possible chance but please if Kaname-sama himself is not at all bothered by his stares, you should remain calm about it – too." Ruka Souen added while she sipped away from her champagne glass filled with unknown red liquid.

"Nice taste of RHB positive blood in here…"

"…Care to stop doing that? It's getting old – and by the way, that's just normal fruit punch." Aidou Hanabusa retorted back with slight annoyance, as though his family's party could be spotted serving blood to the guests – with the presence of the hunters around in undercover disguise.

Zero, in the meantime, found him-self in the washroom splashing water onto his face – while drilling the idea of his duty back into his mind. He was not going to go back out to the front with what his master had classified as the look of a love-struck teen expression.

Kaname Kuran, on the other hand, was still stuck in the midst of his socializing acts – and whilst he had tried to catch the eyes of a certain silver-haired guardian that passes him by; the former had been adamant on treating him as though he was invisible.

"Kaname-sama, may I have the pleasure to introduce to you – my daughter?" Another guest had come forth to greet the pureblood, causing the said vampire to shift his attention back to his task on hand which is socializing and politely rejecting any proposal of a match-making scheme.

Yagari Touga busied himself with the task of surveying the crowd that gathered within the halls, while shifting his position by changing directions every few minutes unlike his disciple whom had chosen to stick to the far end corner of the function hall. Fifteen minutes later, he found himself back in his disciple company towards the further end of the event hall.

"Words had been going around that you are the main suspect for killing that woman." Yagari started, keeping his tone low – no doubt, trying to avoid detection from the vampires.

"I know…but it hadn't been me whom gave her the final blow though." Zero responded, matter-of-factly not giving anything else out even to his own master.

"…" Silence was received from Yagari Touga's side upon Zero's words, and then followed by Zero's declaration of having seen his younger twin in prior.

"I see…" Yagari Touga murmured, there was no need for further questions to be asked – Zero had once mentioned that Ichiru was taken by that woman when he had been left out on the front porch to fend for him-self. Henceforth, when Zero said that he had seen Ichiru around – Yagari knew then, the younger twin of Zero must have stuck by the side of that Shizuka Hiou all these times.

Yuuki Cross sat alone in the empty but posh room within the property of Aidou Hanabusa's family, feeling very much restless. Being bore out of her mind, the girl had started to take interest in observing the room around her.

'A room without any windows…' Yuuki mused to her-self, as she found the sheer idea of it striking a familiar chord in her.

It was then that the door to the room which Yuuki was situated within swung open without warning, the sound of the door opening startled the dark haired girl as she spun round to face the intruder to the room she was in. Her expression of surprise gave way to perplex and confusion when she recognized the intruder to be the little vampire boy from before. She knew now that the little boy crying for his mother, and requesting for her to bring him around in search for the missing mother is a vampire child – after the vice president of the night-class had kindly lecture her on the reason behind her fainting spell.

"Big sister… I'm sorry." The boy inched himself halfway through the open doorway and said to Yuuki, then running off through the open doorway again leaving Yuuki behind to panic.

"Wait up, little boy … please don't let anyone knows that I'm in here, will you?" Yuuki make an attempt to run after the little boy, only to find that there is no longer anyone in the corridor way.

'Strange…' Yuuki thought, and if she had any common sense in her she should have went back into the room and locked the door behind her. Unfortunately, Yuuki caved in to her own curiosity to see for her-self just how the party of a vampire society is like – when she was tempted by the sound of the music played in the main hall.

Slowly and cautiously, Yuuki crept along the hall-way as she peeked at the party going on below her at a lower storey. Scanning the faces of the participants for the party, Yuuki swallowed upon the recognition of many famous people whom she somehow chanced upon in prior – be it on TV, News or even from the gossips between her class-mates. Her thought then shifted back to what she had heard from her adopted father – Kaien Cross, about the existence of many vampires whom had taken up to the lifestyle of camouflaging them-selves in public.

Just then a familiar silver-haired guest came into her sighting view, and gulping nervously – Yuuki ducked and hide.

'What in the world is Zero doing here at a party organized for the aristocrat society?!' Yuuki found herself wondering. She highly doubted that Aidou would invite Zero along, even if he did – Yuuki certainly would not believe that Zero had accepted the invitation. Then pray tell why is it that Zero is here?! Is he here as a waiter or a servant? Yuuki wondered – because judging from Zero's attire, he certainly doesn't looks like one who is here to have fun partying.

Then is it because of other duties? A series of thoughts raced through the mind of the female guardian as she pondered over the reason behind the silver-haired ex-human hunter presence in the company of so many vampires – before the most plausible reason crept into her mind that Zero is most probably here to keep an eye out on the vampires taking part in the party.

Kiryuu Zero could yell, but he refrained from doing so – he was already the centre of the attention, no point drawing more attention to him-self. However, he was beyond exasperation upon sensing a certain supposedly unconscious female's presence while walking around the event hall keeping a lookout on the participants' behavior. Now he could only hope that nobody else had detected the presence of Yuuki – a mere human trapped in a vampire's territory.

"Kaname-sama, I've heard that during the most recent dealing with the council – you'd taken your position to side with the humans. Is that right?" Some aristocrat vampire's words draw Zero's attention back to the situation at hand, only to find a certain pureblood standing a mere ten steps away from him-self and judging from the man whom uttered those words – it was once again pertaining to Kaname's decision to defend him on the issue of 'killing' Shizuka Hiou.

"…" Zero said nothing, only maintain his unwavering stare directed towards the pureblood as the man give the aristocrats some fanciful reasons behind his doings. A short exchange of eye-contact had Zero knew that Yuuki must have sneak out from the room by her own means, he could easily see the mild displeasure in those swirling chocolate orbs of the said pureblood while keeping up a facade of his usual polite manners when it comes down to dealing with the lots of the vampires surrounding them.

'Try and locate Yuuki before anyone else does.' Zero could easily decipher the hidden meaning behind Kaname's eyes, and quite frankly speaking – this particular knowledge unnerved the silver-haired hunter a lot. Since when did he master the art of reading emotions that the pureblood usually kept behind his mask of indifference?! Nevertheless, Zero decided to simply dwell about it another time as he started to inch away from the public eyes and go in search for the girl whom had a penchant for attracting trouble to her-self.

Kaname watched with silent eyes as the silver-haired hunter went in search for his beloved sister, before turning his attention back to the father of one Aidou Hanabusa. The man was pretty adamant of the idea to match-make his daughter with him, that – he had already heard from Akatsuki Kain from before. It seems like Aidou had been throwing temper around because of that, deciding to go about the situation in a wayward manner – Kaname found him-self trapped with the rest of the aristocrat who wanted him to meet their daughters or wards that they had brought along with them for the party.

"My most utmost apologies for interrupting this little session, but please refrain from crowding up to Kaname-sama because it would end up with him being upset and thus ruining his socializing mood for the rest of the evening." The sound of a new-comer startled the aristocrat out from their enthusiastic mood, as everyone shifted their glance to the front door of the function hall.

"Sara Shirabuki-Sama…" Someone amidst the hall whispered in recognition.

Sara Shirabuki, one of the few pureblood clans that still survived in the modern society. As she made her way towards Kaname Kuran, those whom crowd before the dark-haired pureblood began to shift and make way for the daughter of the Shirabuki clan.

"It's been a long time, Sara." Kaname greeted as he lifted the hand of the female companion to his lips, the aristocrat way of showing respect to a female.

"Indeed, since you left for school I believed." Sara Shirabuki responded, her smile never to waver under the gaze of Kaname Kuran.

Yuuki was up on the second storey sneaking glances downwards to the exchange between the two pureblood descendents when she felt a hand to her shoulders. A yelp nearly escaped from her lips but another hand managed to clap over her mouth, thus successful in the task of silencing the unintentional yelp of hers.

"Care to explain why you aren't in the room where you are supposed to be staying in?" Zero questioned, in a tone that leaves Yuuki no room for argument.

"… I was worried… about the little boy from before, I wanted to know for certain whether or not has he found his mother yet." Yuuki responded.

"Still, it does not change the fact that the specific order given to you was to remain where you are – no matter the circumstances." Zero concluded, as he started to drag Yuuki back to where she should be staying.

The duo had just entered the room for about five minutes, before Kaname Kuran him-self strolled through the door and proceeded on to lecture Yuuki again for another ten minutes or so – highlighting the valid point as to why she should not go wandering about.

"I'll leave her to you then; I still had some work to do down there." Zero stated his tone flat while he made his exit from the room.

Kaname stared after Zero's departure with an unreadable gaze apparent in his eyes, was it just him or was it really that something in Zero's aura of being a Level D seemed off to him for even a split second of moment? It was true that Level D can detect the presence of humans and vampires in a crowd, but to be able to pin-point the exact location of a specific human or vampire in question would be kind of hard for these ex-humans – if his memory served him correctly. Then how on earth did Zero managed to locate Yuuki this fast and efficiently?

"Kaname-sempai?" Yuuki's questioning voice brought the pureblood back to reality, as he shifted his gaze towards his beloved sister in front of him.

"Never mind, next time do bear it in mind – not to disobey the orders given specifically for your own good." Kaname concluded, before he laid his head atop of Yuuki's stomach. The girl had been sitting on the bed listening to the lecture of one irate ex-human prior to his entry, and now he simply just took advantage of the situation by pushing the said girl to laid back down onto the bed while he rested his head on the girl.

"Eh… Kaname-sempai, what are you doing?" Yuuki asked, unable to comprehend the current situation.

"Be silence for a while, will you? My head is pounding from the entire ruckus going on down there." Kaname muttered aloud, inwardly cursing his own pureblood status – because it would mean frequent socializing trips to parties in the near future. A direct result of his way in handling the prospective match-making attempts downstairs.

Meanwhile, Zero whom had re-entered the function hall nodded discreetly towards the vice-president of the night-class before continuing on his way towards where his master had stood waiting for his re-entry.

"The party is about to come to a close." Yagari Touga started.

"I know."

"In the end, the target I've been pursuing all these while failed to turn up." Yagari commented.

"…" Zero maintains his silence on this topic, because it was not his place to say anything in return.

"Right then, I should probably get going already – help me say 'hello' to those brats of yours." The veteran hunter said again.

"…Will do..." Zero finally responded, after taking a minute of silence to let his master's words soak in fully.

With that, the veteran hunter make his exit from the party while Zero waited on for some more moments – until the servants of the Aidou family started to clear away the dishes being served during the party before returning back to where Kaname and Yuuki were left to their own device.

"I assume your duty for tonight is done?" The question greeted the ex-human from the lips of Kaname Kuran as soon as the former step through the doorway, separating the corridor and the room.

"… Not yet, it can only be considered complete after the whole lot of you arrived back on the grounds of the academy." Zero responded, flatly as he took a step towards the chocolate haired girl and knocks his fist lightly on the girl's head.

"Hey! What was that for?!" Yuuki protested, upon the feel of Zero's fist against the top of her head.

"That's for complicating my duties further!" Zero throw back at Yuuki, his face devoid of emotions while his eyes reflected mild mirth.

"…" Yuuki stared before puffing up her cheeks in annoyance to Zero's actions, but there was no way of her to do any retaliation of sort – because she had to agree her disobedience earlier on did caused some troubles to the majority of the night-class members.

"Well, then let's not dawdled any longer and start making a move on – shall we?" The pureblood spoke up then, as he rose from his seat – leading the way out from the room while the rest of the night-class members follow suit.

Date started: 31/12/2012

Date completed: 1/1/2013


	26. Chapter 25

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating:T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: Very tough chapter to write here, I literally wrote it thrice. This is the third attempt at it, and hopefully it came out well. In this chapter, the twins finally made reappearance…

Chapter 25 – The Dilemma of Choice

Wakaba Sayori stood with the Chairman at the front gate of the Academy, patiently awaiting the return of one Yuuki Cross. The hazel-brown haired girl could not helped but wonder – how much of those 'luck' Yuuki must be having to chance upon a vampire kid out there in public specifically seeking her out for help in locating a misplaced parent.

Another inaudible sigh found its way out from Sayori's lips as she thought back to the instant whereby she had received a call from a certain blue eyed blond aristocrat member of the night-class informing her of Yuuki's whereabouts. Shock could not even describe her emotions fully then, it had her believed herself to be hallucinating when the call first came through to her. Thankfully, she had had enough sense in her to snap back to reality in time – dazing out from just receiving a call out there in public must have made her look stupid enough.

Soon after Sayori recovered herself from the dumbstruck situation she found herself in, the hazel brown haired girl had all but made a swift escape from the ice-cream parlor she was visiting.

The sound of a car motor approaching snapped her back into reality, masking her emotions behind her usual facade of indifference – Wakaba Sayori looked up in time just to witness the sight of the female guardian running towards her upon the opening of the car door.

"Yori-chan, I'm sorry!" Yuuki was telling her.

"You should be … you'd me worried sick back there!" Sayori responded her voice tight and laced with steel while she looked Yuuki over to ensure that the girl's really fine and free from scratches.

"I'm so sorry, but why are your hands so cold?" The chocolate brown haired girl had asked, upon brushing her hands against her friend's.

"How long do you think I've been waiting out here for you?" That was the reply given to Yuuki by one irritated Wakaba Sayori, and it was enough to send the female guardian into yet another incessant session of mouthing off words of apology.

"Enough already, Yuuki – don't you have anything else to say aside from uttering words of apologies?" Wakaba Sayori prompted, successfully ceasing the rambling girl before turning towards the night-class members in general.

"I apologized for the inconvenience caused for the lots of you; I should have stopped her in following me out of the academy grounds." The hazel brown haired started, and while her words were being directed to the night-class members in general – her gaze had never left the face of one expressionless Kaname Kuran.

"Its fine, Yuuki can be very persistent at times and I don't blame you for caving in to her request." It was Zero whom had acknowledged Sayori's apology on behalf of a certain pureblood, and if Kaname was irked by the fact – he did not show.

With that, the night-class members began to file into the academy grounds under the scrutiny eyes of a certain silver-haired guardian and their resident pureblood prince without saying another word. The pureblood was the last to step through the threshold of the academy, and while doing so – requested for the chance to have a word with the silver-haired guardian.

"… Fine…" The ex-human agreed grudgingly when he realized the fact that a certain someone was not going to let him say 'no' to it.

The so-called 'chat' took place in the woods surrounding the Moon Dormitory; it was picked out by the pureblood himself. Reason provided for not wanting to have the so-called talk inside the Moon Dormitory building itself had something to do with the topic of discussion deemed unsuitable for the twins' ears.

"What is it that you want to say? Can you just come out with it already?" Zero found himself snapping with mild irritation, when ten minutes had already fleeted by and a certain pureblood still remained tight-lipped about whichever topic that was supposed to be discussed between them.

"Zero… I'm concern." Kaname eventually started, but the words that came tumbling out from his lips had a certain irate ex-human stunned.

"What the hell… does that means?!" Zero finished dumbly, of all the possible things that he would have thought to be hearing from Kaname Kuran – that was apparently the last thing he had thought possible.

"Yuuki…" The one-word response from the pureblood then did nothing to help with the irritation of Kiryuu Zero, it took the silver-haired teen all his patience to not just snap right there and then.

"Kuran... I'm in no mood for this, if you have something to say. You spelt it out now or you don't say anything at all – guessing games were never my forte and it never will be!" Zero gritted through his teeth, as he fought the urge to stalk upright to the man and strangled him.

A sigh was heard initially from the lips of one Kaname Kuran, before the said person continued his explanation of his previous statement. Turns out that a certain pureblood had the notion in mind about Yuuki fainting in front of the party venue of the night society was no coincidence at all, the past experience of Yuuki said things so.

"… If that's not a coincidence, then what is it?" Zero then asked.

"That is the thing, I had no idea either."

"Then why in the world are you so deeply troubled by it?"

"I'm not certain but I keep on having a nagging feeling tugging at me at the back of my mind, and it certainly doesn't help with Yuuki's sudden desire to tell me how she actually feel about her emptied memories of the past." The pureblood conceded after some moment of silence.

"… Are you going to let her remember the past then?" Zero felt it in him to ask. Honestly speaking, Zero had no idea what he would do if Kaname did decide to let Yuuki regain those lost memories of hers at this point of time.

It was one thing to be accepting the presence of Kaname Kuran, a pureblood vampire to be circling around him on a daily basis but totally another when it comes down to adapting to a sudden change of having Yuuki regaining her pureblood princess status. For Kaname case, all Zero needed to do was to get used to his being around.

Yuuki on the other hand had been under the guise of a mere mortal being all this while, and Zero, himself has already gotten used to the idea of seeing Yuuki as a human. If suddenly a change were to occur without any pre-warning in advance, there is no absolute way of telling how exactly he will react to it all.

"I was tempted to, but I managed to pull back at the last minute." Kaname's response draw the silver-haired hunter out from his thoughts and back to the plane of reality.

"Kuran… what are you doing?" The silver-haired teen let a low growl escape from him, upon sensing the advances of a certain pureblood from behind.

"Don't fret, just stay still for a moment … I won't do anything that you wouldn't want me to." The pureblood replied softly, while burying his face into the tensed shoulder blade of Zero Kiryuu.

The silver-haired hunter remained stony and still for a few minutes before gritting out in frustration. "Kaname Kuran! I'm warning you, let go of me now before I resort to other alternatives of making you unhand me! I am not your bolster, and if you are tired – kindly proceeded back to your room for that rest which you required. I am not going to be stand around and let you 'use' me as a pillow or sort."

Meanwhile, back in the Moon Dormitory building – a certain cousin of the resident pureblood too appeared to be pre-occupied.

"Shiki… is anything the matter?" Takuma Ichijo, room-mate to the said teen frown in concern after realizing that Shiki Senri was zoning out on him.

"I just thought … never mind, its' nothing." The teen in question shakes his head ruefully, as he responded.

"Well… if you are certain." The green eyed blond shrugged it off, but still keeping an eye out on his slightly 'off' room-mate.

"Yare…Yare… The storm is brewing…" Kiryuu Akane mumbled under her breath, as she took in the sight of the gloomy skies out there before turning her attention to the twins.

"Come on; let's head out there to retrieve those young and stubborn parents of ours – shall we?" Akane suggested to the twins, currently in the midst of a 'Pocky' fight.

"Okay!" With that, the two boys threw the box of half-finished Pocky box aside and went barreling out front in search for their young parents.

Kiryuu Zero had been pondering over the possibility of getting one Kaname Kuran to remove himself from his body when he heard the un-mistakenable sound of the twins yell for them. Counting mentally to five, he was immensely grateful when Kaname Kuran stopped leaning against him and took to the option of leaning with his back against the tree bark instead.

"Daddy, Father… where have you been?" Akira asked when he reached the sides of his young parents.

"We have been nowhere… just standing around out here all these time." Zero found himself responding to the boy's question, with a small smile of his own. Somehow, he could felt his irritation at the earlier situation leaving him upon the sight of the twins now standing in front of him.

"Father…are you okay?" Subaru ignored his younger twin, and centre his attention on the other parent instead.

If Kaname was surprised by the silver-haired boy's question, he did not show any outward reaction to it – merely nodded his response to the boy before voicing out. "I'm fine, just a little tired from all that socializing from before."

"Aa…" The elder twin make a knowing sound, before turning to observe his other parent's interaction with his twin.

"Well… at least Akira does seem to have some plus points around here." Subaru commented after witnessing just how easy his younger twin had managed to soothe the irritation out from Zero.

Kaname glances over to where Zero was busying himself with Akira, and fought a smile of his own. He supposed he could understand where exactly was Subaru coming from… Akira was indeed prone to create trouble for them all. Sometimes, it can really drive them insane and he did for a while ponder over the possibility to drill some discipline in the boy – but somehow he never did. Judging from what he had seen over these periods of time, it was not that Akira had no discipline in him.

In fact, it was quite the opposite – Akira knew just exactly when he could afford to be notorious and when to behave himself. Although, that did nothing to change the fact that Akira had a tendency to be both reckless and careless when handling fragile items. For instances, that bottle of blood he had dropped unintentionally after being startled and also the jar of honey that he had knocked off the dining table in his eagerness to head into town – several weeks ago.

Kiryuu Zero ruffled the hair of Akira fondly, while he wondered just how bizarre this whole situation had come down to. The twins together with Akane had just come out from nowhere claiming to be from the future about two months ago, and he had initially started off his interaction with the trio uneasily. Now though, it seems like he could easily slide in and out from his parenting role and the sight of Akira sticking around him somehow was getting easier for him to stomach. After all, the boy saved for the exception of those lilac eyes of his – was a complete replica of the pureblood.

"You know, as much as I would hate to interrupt this family bonding time of yours – its' getting late and the rain is coming. So perhaps if the lot of you could just go inside of the building to continue the bonding session or whatsoever, I'll be immensely grateful." The sudden sound of Akane speaking up jolted the two young adults back to reality.

Upon Akane's words, Zero glances up at the skies for a brief moment before making a move to stand – probably to head back to where he should be. Unfortunately, his hopes of making an early escape were dashed when Akira refused to remove himself from the guardian's pants.

"Akira…" Zero started to speak, only to have the boy staring up at him with pitiful puppy eyes.

"…" The onlookers fell silent; Akane was seen to be fighting a smile from breaking across her features whereas Subaru just made a roll of his eyes upon the sight of Akira pulling his favorite puppy eyes look towards the younger version of their 'Daddy'. Then the expected reaction from the said hunter came; a look of exasperation started to worm itself into those lilac eyes of his – before he reached down to the child's level and picked the boy up in his arms.

"Fine then… but I am and will not be staying the night." Zero emphasized.

A crooked smile of sort found itself onto Kaname's lips, before he nodded his response. "I'd gathered that much."

Aidou Hanabusa's facial expression took on a turn for the gloom when he witnessed the sight of a certain ex-human entering the privacy of his beloved pureblood's room – again, for the third time in the week. Beside him, his cousin – Akatsuki Kain took one look at his expression before patting him as a form of comforting gesture before dragging him off, back towards the privacy of their shared room.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" Hanabusa protested, when his cousin finally unleashed the grip on him.

"Hanabusa, I'm telling you now for the seventeenth times in this week – just get it straight into your mind that no matter how you glare and stare. You are not going to change the fact that Kiryuu Zero was going to enter Kaname-sama's room, no matter what!" Akatsuki Kain stated flatly as he eyed his unhappy cousin from the corner of his eyes.

"… Still, why did Kaname-sama have to allow him entry so easily?" Aidou Hanabusa whined, causing his cousin's eyes to roll yet again at his words.

"Hanabusa, just snap out of it already – would you? For your information, they are not alone in there – the twins are inside the room, too. Nothing could be done with the twins around to watch, either. So just get your mind out from the gutter already! While we are on the subject of Kaname-sama and Kiryuu, let me remind you again – you have no right to interfere in the decision made by Kaname-sama." Akatsuki commented dryly, before making a grab for his towel as he proceeded to the attached bathroom for his long and over-due shower.

"Nah… Akatsuki, do you think I should invite Kiryuu over for vacation?" The blue eyed blond suddenly spoke up after being done with his daily and routine sulking session in a corner of his room.

There was a sound of something dropping onto the floor with a 'clang' sound, followed by a string of curses let loose by the bathroom occupant. Then was followed by the answer from within, "Hanabusa, kindly refrain from bringing up such impromptu question in future… Although, there has hardly been any cases of a vampire dying from cardiac arrest – I certainly had no qualms about being the first. Now, may I inquire what the hell happened that caused you to bring forth such a scary notion?"

"Nothing… I just thought maybe Kaname-sama would prefer that Kiryuu came along with us for the vacation."

"Hanabusa, as much as I would like to praise you for your brilliant idea – you have to realize that this is hardly a sound suggestion. First off, Kiryuu is a vampire hunter… unless you have the inclination to be murder off by your own family members' I would seriously advise you to drop the idea completely. Secondly, while Kaname-sama may find the idea of being at your place was a torturing session with all that sisters of yours being around and all – he would never turn his displeasure on to you. Last but not least, please try not to forget our fellow time-travelers from the future – Kiryuu cannot leave the school grounds, he need to stay behind and watch over them." Akatsuki Kain responded in an analytical manner, while he took a short moment to pause in his task of showering in order to address his cousin's unusual question.

Date started: 2/1/2013

Date completed: 2/1/2013


	27. Chapter 26

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In which, there are finally some real KanZe moments. Hopefully, not too ooc… I figured they are both not the type to show much romantic actions … but one could think it in this manner, something 'good' to last them for the 3 weeks of separation. Not a lot of twins' actions in this one… I'll try to make it up somehow in the end chapter of next chapter. Anyway, without further ado – enjoy!

Chapter 26 – Whereby the Vacation Starts…

Final exams for the school year was over in a flash of lights, and following the end of the examination period marks the start of the Winter Term Break for the students of the Cross Academy. For both the students from Day-Class and Night-Class, they will be requested to head back to their respective homes for the term break while the school would then closed for about three weeks to carry out some regular maintenance work on the academy grounds.

Ever since the 'talk' in the woods with a certain pureblood, the silver-haired guardian found himself observing his partner's reaction towards the night-class members during the class change-over time. Yuuki could not have been more obvious with the way she was feeling awkward around Kaname, with the way her eyes always had a tendency to stray whenever the pureblood came into her vision range. And the funniest thing is – she had thought that neither he nor the pureblood him-self had noticed her uncomfortable stance during the routine class-change over time.

On the last day of class for the day-class students, Zero had skipped out the morning lessons and only waltz into the classroom an hour before lunch break. A quick glance around the classroom notify him the absence of a certain sandy-haired girl – Kiryuu Akane, currently going by the alias of being his distant relative when in actual fact, was his future adopted daughter.

No doubt, Akane was trapped in the Moon Dormitory placating the two boys whom were relatively upset about the need to be separated with their 'Father Dearest' for a period of 3 weeks. During last night's dinner over at the Chairman when the twins first heard of the issue, they were greatly upset – even the usually obedient Subaru and that surprised Zero a great deal.

When he had called up Akane at a later point of time to check things out, the girl had claimed the twins had taken to stick by Kaname for the rest of the evening showering the said pureblood with all the questions in the world pertaining to why they couldn't spend the vacation together as a family and instead would have to be separated. Now with the moment of the departure nearing, Zero could only hoped that the pureblood had managed to placate those boys of theirs to let him leave the academy in peace.

"Neh… Yuuki-chan, do you have anything planned for the vacation?" Two day-class girls approached the female guardian and asked.

"Eh… not exactly…" Yuuki replied, seeing as she was the adopted daughter of the Chairman – there was no need for her to leave campus after the school closes for the term break. The same could be said for Zero, so most probably this vacation would just be like any other ones that they had had before.

"Then… do you want to perhaps help us out in the task of setting up microscopic cameras within the building of the Moon Dormitory?" One of the girls suggested boldly, and although the words uttered were in the form of a whispering tone – Zero still managed to catch wind of it, just fine.

"Good morning, Zero…" Yuuki started weakly, sweat-dropping upon the sight of the two girls fleeing the site as soon as they noticed the silver-haired guardian standing behind them with the usual mask of annoyance.

"It's already noon." Zero commented dryly, before beckoning for Yuuki to follow him in his lead.

"Eh… Zero, where are we going?" Yuuki asked when she realized that they were heading towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory.

"Our last duty for the month or at least until the new term starts – all the night-class members are going to pack up and leave for home. We, as the school guardians, are supposed to supervise their departure and send every one of them off safely. I thought you knew that?" The silver-haired guardian stated, plainly before throwing a questioning look over his shoulders at the girl whom had paused in mid-steps.

"…I'd forgotten about it." The chocolate haired girl muttered aloud, as she fought the urge to face palm herself.

"…" Zero was speechless, usually he was the one whom hardly cared and preferred to skip out on his guardian duties. Normally, Yuuki is the one being extremely enthusiastic about it all – but today, she actually forgotten about her supposed duties? Is she really that bothered by Kaname's actions taken on that day after the party towards her? Zero wondered.

Outside of the Moon Dormitory building, Takuma Ichijo was enthusiastically instructing for his family servants that had came by to pick him up to move his precious belongings back home for him. Yuuki and Zero took a look at the number of boxes to be shifted out from the Dormitory and sweat-dropped in unison – no wonder Akane had said that this guy started packing up for the vacation since two weeks ago.

According to Akane, 80 percent of Ichijo Takuma's luggage happens to be mangas to be shipped home and only 20 percent of it was clothes for the said vampire. His belongings were said to be the most among the night-class members, with the way he was instructing for his family servants to shift his belongings – one would have thought he was moving house instead of going back home for a 3 weeks vacation of sort.

On the other side of the foyer, a certain blue eyed blond vampire was fidgeting about as he glances around the vicinity uneasily while his own family servants' packed his luggage into the car trunk. Zero left the supervision duty to Yuuki, while he busied himself with the surveying of the surrounding area. He could easily hear the cheerful green eyed vampire teasing Aidou about loosening up and assuring the former that their resident pureblood leader would definitely go and visit the Aidou during the vacation period, because the idea of teasing Aidou was too fun for them all to pass up – resulting in the blond aristocrat's anger towards the former.

"A-ra? Kiryuu-kun, Yuuki-chan! How are you today?" Ichijo Takuma, whom had enough of poking fun at Aidou then shifted his attention towards the two guardians and greeted them with a bright smile on his face.

"… You aren't on sugar high, are you?" Zero asked before he could stop himself, and thus ended up two sets of eyes staring at him in surprise.

"Zero…" Yuuki's mouth was twitching uncontrollably, whereas Takuma Ichijo's eyes were dancing with amusement.

"Oh my… how did you know that?" Takuma Ichijo responded a bright smile on his face as he regarded the cool and usually aloof silver-haired guardian.

If Yuuki was only surprised by Zero's odd remark from before, she is now absolutely speechless by the green eyed vampire's response. Since when did Zero's relationship with the said vampire are this good – to be joking around?!

"…You are behaving like Akira usually did when he was given candies." Zero stated, without batting his eyelid.

"Oh… am I?" The green eyed blond aristocrat member mused aloud, while he thought is that the impression he was always giving out to the others?

"Where are the twins?" Zero then questioned, after realizing that the twins were nowhere in sight and the same could be said about Akane as well.

"Aa… they're with Kaname, most likely doing last minute check on the windows lock and all." The Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory responded.

There was a moment of silence, until the distinctive yell of the word 'Daddy!' broke the peace surrounding them. Then out came the twins barreling towards the silver-haired hunter – more like Akira barrel out with Subaru trailing behind the younger twin at a more sedated pace.

Akane followed suit, and the last to exit the Moon Dormitory was none other than Kaname Kuran – himself. Seeing as he has to be the one locking up everything, and finally when he reaches the guardians – Yuuki started to reach for the keys to the now vacant dormitory building in hesitation.

"… Yuuki, you do not have to dwell over that incident so much – I know you meant what you said the other day and that's good enough for me already." With that said, Kaname proceeded to pat Yuuki in a reassuring manner on the girl's head before shifting his glance to Zero.

"Kaname, we are leaving already – are you coming yet?" Takuma asked, voicing out on behalf of the other members already seated in the car.

"I'm coming, in another five minutes." Kaname told his childhood friend, then turning to Yuuki and requesting for the girl to take her leave first.

"Eh…?" Yuuki flickered her gaze between the two male figures, before bowing and take her leave hastily.

"… Come along boys, we will head over to grandpa Cross first." Akane started as soon as Yuuki left the site, and dragging the two boys along while she provide some privacy for the two males that is still standing unmoving from their initial position.

"…"

"Out with it already – you have your whole group of supporters awaiting your presence outside. Whatever you want to say, keep it short – you previously told Ichijo to give you another 5 minutes, and already you've wasted 3 minutes of it." Zero kindly reminded the pureblood in front of him.

"Well… there's no other ways of saying this, but although its' only a period of 3 weeks. Do try to refrain from injuries, will you?" Kaname finally opened his mouth to speak; only the words that tumble forth from his lips – caused the silver-haired guardian to feel like punching him in the gut.

"Excuse me but I don't always injured my-self – okay?! That sounds more like Yuuki's style of doing things!" The silver-haired teen huffed in annoyance.

"Alright… I'll amend what I said then. Do take good care of yourself and also of the boys, keep an eye out on Yuuki and Akira – especially Yuuki she had a knack of landing herself in trouble. Akane, I'm not so worried about – she's old enough to take care of herself. You, on the other hand, I'm not going to order you anything because I know you never obey them. All I'm asking of you is to keep yourself safe from injuries if you really have the need to accept missions from the association, also remember to feed when necessary." Kaname Kuran said, listing down the number of things for Zero to take note of causing the said hunter to roll his eyes in response.

"Are you quite done with the instructions yet?" Zero asked, pointedly while tapping his feet against the ground with mild irritation. The pureblood was behaving too much like a long-winded parent, that half-irritate and half-amused the ex-human in this situation, because Zero was trying his hardest to fight a grin that is threatening to form on his lips.

"Yes, just this one more things to do then I will be done." With that said Kaname Kuran reached forward and pulled the silver-haired hunter in for a hug – at the same time planting a friendly peck onto the hunter's cheek.

"What the …!" Zero fumed, as he felt himself flushing a deep crimson after being subjected to a friendly peck by the pureblood on his cheeks. Reacting on sheer instincts, Zero did the first thing that came to mind – attempting to send kick to the pureblood only to find him-self kicking the air.

Apparently, Kaname had made full use of his vampire's speed and promptly remove himself from Zero's attack range once he managed to place a kiss on the irate ex-human's cheek. Laughing jovially, the pureblood grabbed his suitcase and left the area heading outside where the rest of the noble-class vampires awaited his arrival.

Zero glared at the departing figure of Kaname Kuran, as he punched the bark of a nearby tree in order to vent off some agitation.

"Damn you, Kuran! Why the hell did you have to go and do that?!" Zero fumed silently to himself as he felt his cheeks still flushed from the earlier intimate act instigated by that infuriating pureblood. Granted, the deed was performed when there was no one in sight but still it do nothing to soothe the embarrassing feeling arising in him.

Horror flooded through him when he realized he had actually found the pureblood's earlier actions 'nice and sweet', and immediately Zero banged his head against the tree bark this time around.

"Good lord… I'm doomed." Zero muttered aloud once he realized he was indeed smitten by the pureblood's acts, inwardly he was thankful that his master was not around to witness how he had reacted earlier on to the peck which the pureblood had managed to plant onto his cheeks while he let his guards down.

'Come on… get a grip on yourself, it's just a friendly peck on the cheeks not a kiss on the lips – stop blushing already!' Zero willed himself mentally as he commanded his inner self to snap out of that love struck teen mode and get back to his usual cold and unfeeling mode.

A loud shrill ringing jolt the teen back into reality, holding a hand to his swelling forehead – Zero slide his other free hands into the back of his uniform's pocket and withdrew a slim silver gadget out from it.

"What is it now?" He asked into the receiver, only to snap it shut within 1 minute of the talk time. His mind only registers one thing – that is, 'Maria Kurenai is awake!' Promptly, and immediately Zero turned on his heels and made his way towards the infirmary ward where they had stationed the unconscious night-class transfer student after Shizuka Hiou withdraw her soul from it and return to her own body after which.

It has been nearly a month after Shizuka's death by Kaname's hand – and Zero had nearly forgotten all about the existence of Maria Kurenai if the Chairman did not think of calling him to inform of the student's awakening – approximately one minute ago.

Stopping momentarily, Zero send a text message towards Akane informing the girl of the issue and claimed that he will be late – entrusting the twins into her capable hands until then. By the time Zero arrived at the infirmary ward, he noticed that Yuuki is already there and judging from the expression on the Chairman's and Yuuki's face – somehow his being there would only complicate situation further. His inner doubts were addressed soon after, accompanied by the mad dash of Maria Kurenai barreling towards him uttering the name of his twin 'Ichiru!'

"…" Zero stared at the female vampire hugging his waist area, and froze momentarily. How should one react under this situation? He thought – as he glances over to where the Chairman was, then diverting his gaze towards Yuuki instead. The duo just stood there like a wooden block, half panicking and half in amusement.

"Ichiru… you're finally here! The two of them there kept on lying to me claiming to say that Shizuka-sama is already dead and that you are not here!" The female vampire wailed as she clings onto Zero's waist for some kind of moral support.

"…" Running a hand through his silvery hair strands, Zero wondered – just how exactly is he going to get across to the vampire clinging onto him, that Shizuka is indeed dead and he wasn't that twin of his but soon he found that there was no longer any need for them to explain further. Because the female vampire by now had recognized from his uneasy expression that he was not whom she thought him to be – starting with her hesitant utter of his name 'Zero' followed by a sway of her petite body only to be stable again when Yuuki reached a hand out to balance her.

"I see… so Shizuka-sama has already met you." Maria Kurenai whispered, no longer looking in Zero's direction as she shifted her glance elsewhere – probably staring at the ground.

Zero stood by and watched in silence as Maria Kurenai launched into her tale of how she met Ichiru and Shizuka, then it went on to become the life story of Shizuka Hiou. Throughout this whole process, Zero said nothing merely listening on to the girl's tale in silence. It surprised himself even, let alone the Chairman and Yuuki.

He supposed, in more ways than one, he did owe it to Akane and the twins, also a certain resident pureblood of their academy. Somehow over the past 2 months, his patience while dealing with the vampires had increased a whole lot. Just look at how he didn't flipped out when Maria Kurenai literally went barreling into him. Under usual circumstances, his gun would be out shooting at the intruder of his privacy area already. Yet, nothing of that sort happened this time around – must have been due to Akira's tendency to tackle him down with hug.

Through Maria Kurenai's recount of Shizuka's story, he found out the reason behind his family demise. How ironic, he thought – his parents' being sent out to take down a lover of a pureblood vampire, and afterwards his family was brutally killed by the pureblood seeking revenge. Now as he come to think about it, it was not as though there has been no warning in prior to Shizuka's arrival.

In fact, Zero now recalled that three days prior to his family's tragedy event – Ichiru and him-self had indeed seen that woman loitering about the area, perching atop of a sakura tree watching the two of them played. Ichiru had even spoken to her then, and Zero wondered if that has been the reason behind why Shizuka did not choose to kill Ichiru when she had the chance to do so – if anything, Shizuka choose to give Ichiru her blood willingly even.

"Zero… It's not my place to say this, but I believed Shizuka-sama would never regret to let you kill her. The things that she had done to you and your family members, she regretted them – even if she didn't say but I know she did regret losing herself in the midst of her craze for revenge." Maria Kurenai said in her agitation, her hands grabbing on to the fabric of Zero's uniform blazer now.

"Maria-san, you've just wake up and it will do you no good to be this agitated. Therefore, please calm yourself down – okay?" The Chairman had intervened then, not wanting to be responsible if anything untoward were to happen to Maria Kurenai before her family sends their people over to take her back – most likely.

Zero was on his way out from the infirmary room, when Maria Kurenai spoke again. This time, her features completely serious and void of emotions as she told him.

"Zero… I just thought that you should know, the orders that the Kiryuu received then – pertaining to the hunting of Shizuka-sama's lover. That was a set-up; someone was obviously displeased by a pureblood taking on an ex-human lover …By the time Shizuka-sama was informed of this information, it was far too late. The Kiryuu clan was already wiped out by her in a moment of folly… I think that person should be the one you should blame your family's demise upon." Maria Kurenai finished.

"…" Zero said nothing but nodded in acknowledgement, signaling to the agitated noble that he had heard her. Then, he closed off the door leading to the infirmary and was about to turn and leave when he realized that the duo was still waiting for him outside.

"Zero, are you okay?" Yuuki asked in concern.

"I'm fine… whatever makes you think otherwise?" Zero question back in return.

"No… nothing, I'm just thinking about what Maria had said earlier on. Regarding love…" Yuuki murmured, more like speaking to herself really – because the tone she had used is so soft-spoken that if it wasn't for his vampire sense of hearing, he definitely would not be able to make out what she had mumbled to herself.

Zero listened quietly as Yuuki questioned about the reason behind why her parents had deserted her, leaving her out on the cold winter night for the vampires to find. Almost immediately, the girl changed the subject of conversation again – this time reassuring Zero that she is fine; after all she had no memories of the past and all that.

Nonetheless, Zero knew enough of the girl to judge that nothing is fine with Yuuki at all – she was still immensely bothered by her missing past, and then she asked him a very strange question. Does one get stronger when he or she is a vampire? That silent Zero for a while, then Yuuki rambled on about how Kaname Kuran had brought up the subject on asking her if she wanted to be a vampire that day after the end of the party when Zero was away – and how she had responded a 'yes' to it then.

Of course, this information was nothing new to Zero because he had already heard it once from the lips of a certain pureblood in prior, during their 'chat' after their return from the party in the woods that surrounded the dormitory building.

"Ah… of course, Kaname-sempai is just joking around." The chocolate brown haired girl scratched the back of her head sheepishly as she said this, as though worrying about Zero's possible response to her earlier words.

"… Still, you are seriously contemplating about it." Zero stated, flatly but with his facial expression devoid of emotions – not even Yuuki could tell what he was thinking about at this moment of time.

"Erm… Zero, are you mad?" Yuuki felt herself asking stupidly.

"…" Zero said nothing; he was thinking about how on earth is he supposed to answer something like that? Telling Yuuki to just go ahead with what she wants doesn't sound like what he would suggest, but telling her to not even think about it will ended up putting himself in between Yuuki and Kaname Kuran. Both options do not sound appealing to him at all, so he decided to remain silent and steer the topic of conversation elsewhere instead.

"If you have the time to think about such things, why don't you worry about the sleeping arrangements for the next 3 weeks instead?" Zero shot back, as he made his way back towards the Chairman's place.

"Huh…?" Yuuki blinked in bewilderment.

"In case you've forgotten, Akane and the twins will be living with us for this vacation and while we dawdled around here – those three might be bored out of their mind waiting for us to head back there." With that said, Zero left Yuuki's vision range completely as he turned and disappeared around the corner bend of the corridor.

Date started: 2/1/2013

Date completed: 2/1/2013


	28. Chapter 27

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: I try my best to fit in twins' actions in here but if you noticed… it's not much, with Kaname away from the campus – you get to see some Zero and the twins bonding. Akane noticed something different in Zero's feeding pattern too…Yuuki part in this chapter is slightly more, I'll insert Kaname into the chapter with the rest of night class members later on in the ending portion if possible.

Chapter 27 – In which Sayori and Akane talk …

Kiryuu Zero entered the Chairman's residential area on the academy grounds, and was immediately met by the sight of a teary eyed Akira with reddening cheeks. Standing two steps to the left was an emotionless Subaru with his entire pureblood aura unleashed in full gear, and then Akane was practically doubling over with laughter.

The culprit behind it all was none other than the Chairman whom had left the school building faster than he did, Yuuki, on the other hand was off to the direction of the Sun Dorm to pick up some of the items which she will need over the period of the vacation.

"Chairman Cross, kindly released Akira from your cheeks pinching act. He may have loved you enough to not threaten you with bodily harm, but he will tattle – and when he did inform a certain Kuran about what you did to him…" Zero left the threat hanging in the air, waiting for the retired hunter to soak it all in himself.

The Chairman gulped nervously before taking his hands off the younger twin, though not without another last pinch on those reddening cheeks of the boy. It was not every day that he could have the chance of pinching the cheeks of a vampire child, and certainly the chance was completely none when the said child is a pureblood.

Looking at Akira now would remind him painfully of those days whereby Kaname was still young standing to the side of his mother – Kuran Juri. He had yearned to pinch Kaname then, but he did not have the guts to do it. That intense gaze of his had him faltered. Akira though was another case completely, the boy was completely fun to converse with and he seldom put on the airs of being a pureblood.

"Daddy…" Akira started his eyes pitiful as he dashes over to where Zero stood as soon as he was out from the Chairman's reach.

Zero sighed as he picked the tearful boy up in his arms, as he ventured in deeper into the residence. Beckoning for Subaru to follow him while they made their way to his room within the Chairman's residence, Akane was left alone with the Chairman in the living room – while one double over with laughter, the other sulking with the loss of his 'toy'.

Once the silver-haired teen and the two boys were out from earshot range, Akane pulled herself together and regarded the Chairman in solemnity.

"Now that they are no longer in hearing range, care to fill me in on what happened in the infirmary ward earlier on?" Akane started, in tone that leaves the ex-hunter no way out from the situation.

With an audible sigh, the Chairman started to recount the incident that took place in the infirmary towards the sandy-haired vampire girl seated in front of him.

Back in the Sun Dormitory building for girls, Yuuki Cross was very surprised to find her room-mate and best friend still on campus.

"Yori-chan… you haven't even start to pack yet?"

"Aa… I can't get any available ticket heading for the direction of my hometown today, according to the ticket booth vendor – the next available ticket for the train would only take off tomorrow morning." Wakaba Sayori lied easily enough, she was purposely lagging behind in her packing and trying her best to delay herself in traveling back home. In short, she was procrastinating …because going home would mean for her to face with her dilemma of allegiance, and that was the last thing she wanted to think about.

"Well… I supposed you can indeed stay for another night, after all, Maria's parents would only be able to pick her up from here tomorrow morning." Yuuki reasoned, since Maria Kurenai is a vampire by birth nature and despite it being winter – generally vampires disliked traveling in the mid-day. Come to think of it now, those night class members are really one of a kind … so long it wasn't in the middle of a summer season; they are actually willing to step out from the comforts of their dormitory to patrol the streets in town during day-time under orders, of course.

"Now then… Yuuki, you are not just coming in here to chit-chat, are you?" Sayori prompted.

"Ah! You're right, I almost forgot!" Yuuki had all but gushes out, as she pulled a sling bag from her wardrobe situated within her dorm room as she sweep the lots of her daily necessity items into it before excusing herself from the company of Wakaba Sayori and made a mad dash for the Chairman's residential area.

"…" Wakaba Sayori stared after the hurrying girl in silence, before shaking her head ruefully and stared down at her mobile phone in dread. 'Any minute now…' she thought, and true to her premonition – the phone blare to life soon after.

Taking a deep breath to brace her-self for what was to come, Sayori hold the phone to her ears and waited.

"Yes… I know… My utmost apologies for the delay. No, there's no need for you to send anyone over to pick me up from here, I've already book the ticket for tomorrow. Yes, I will present my report to you when I got back tomorrow. No, mother has not said anything pertaining to it yet. That, I will tell you tomorrow – this subject is hardly a topic of discussion to be speaking of, over the phone." Sayori responded, her voice tight as her free hand gripped on to the fabric of her skirt tightly while she fought the urge to smash her phone gadget against the wall.

The conversation only lasted for like ten minutes, and she felt as though several years had gone by during that short amount of time. Dropping her phone unceremoniously to the side, Sayori pulled both her legs up to her chest as she buried her face upon them.

Frustration at the whole general issue was at work obviously, never one to vent her agitation outright – Wakaba Sayori was at a loss of actions. Her blood boiled as she remembered the words spoken from her father through the phone conversation earlier, she was his daughter for heaven's sake – how could he talk to her as though she was one of those subordinates of his?!

When was the last time her father had spoken to her in a civil manner? Right, before she was being sent into the Cross Academy for her so-called spying activity… From that point onwards anything that her father had it in mind to speak to her about – it would always concern her observation of Kiryuu Zero.

Honestly, she has no absolute ideas as to why her father had wanted her to keep an eye out on Zero's actions – but not to hinder any of it, at the same time. What is the point behind her observation, anyway?! What the hell was going on in the clan of the Fujiwara?! If the reports were to be submitted to them, Sayori still would not mind it this much – but to send a copy off to the Hunter's association as well?! That's just plain weird, isn't it?! Considering the fact that the Fujiwara had never did fit in completely with the members of the hunter's association.

Then her mother's words came to her – to protect Zero at all cost. Fujiwara Haruto and Fujiwara Yumi, what are those two playing at now? The current head of the vampire council is – Ichijo Asato, and Fujiwara Yumi would never associate with the likes of those wooden blocks as she deemed it to be. Fujiwara Haruto; though is another matter entirely – he works closely with relations to the Hunter's association, going against all the rules set by the first clan head of the Fujiwara's hunter's lineage.

A sudden knock on the door draw the hazel brown haired girl out from her thoughts, as she turned inquiring eyes towards one Kiryuu Akane. The girl currently going by the alias identity of being the so-called distant relative of Kiryuu Zero, an outright and blatant lie if Sayori had any say in it – the Kiryuu clan was no more, saved for the Kiryuu twins themselves.

"I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but I'll like to have a word with you – if you don't mind." Akane started, as she leaned against the open door-way leading to the inside of Sayori's dorm room.

"Sure, just come on in and closed the door behind you." Sayori responded, thinking that it was perhaps time for them to air out some laundry that is long over-due.

"In other words, you are saying that there's some conspiracy work at play here – between the association and the hunter's side of the Fujiwara clan?" Sayori questioned, after she had spent an hour listening to the words of Kiryuu Akane and fully digested the extent of information being dumped on her like a bomb-shell.

'Time travel… how daring…' Wakaba Sayori thought inwardly, before she was draw out from her thoughts by the girl's next words.

"Well… there's no other ways of thinking it, isn't that so? Fujiwara Haruto was always on the aggressive side, and he was never happy with the way the previous clan head had handled the situation between the clashes of the vampires and the hunters in general. The union between Fujiwara Yukari and Kiryuu Kaoru itself was another point contributing to the possibility of Haruto conspiring with the association. Fujiwara are always been seen as an outcast in the society, and the Kiryuu are highly look upon by the association – because of the Kiryuu's abilities in the grounds of hunting for vampires. Still, while they look upon to the Kiryuu's – the association had never liked them much either.

The Kiryuu line had started from Kiryuu Mamoru, and that guy is just like someone that popped out from nowhere – it was rumored at some point of time that he had came out from the threshold of the Hiou's ground. The distinctive lilac eyes of the Kiryuu's that has always been passes down by generations, and the Hiou clan in the pureblood society are well-known for their possession of such beautiful lilac eyes, isn't that so?" Akane mused aloud, funny that no one has ever come to suspect that possibility – and she never did too, until she remembered Yuuki's case.

Combined with what Akane had gathered from the words of recount coming from the Chairman, pertaining to Maria Kurenai. Shizuka Hiou had given Maria Kurenai her blood in exchange to make use of Maria's body to come down over to the Academy in order to meet Zero, the blood of Shizuka successfully allowed Maria's sickly body to make a turn for the better. The reason given by Maria for the fact was that they shared blood relations through their veins, then what about Ichiru?

The younger twin of Zero used to be a sickly child too – but judging from what Zero had recounted when Shizuka died combined with the words Ichiru had used against Zero when the silver-haired hunter had tried to kill the pureblood. According to Ichiru's recount, Shizuka had willingly allowed her blood to be drunk by Ichiru and strengthening up his body changing it for the better.

If what Maria said was the truth, and Ichiru had no reasons to be lying as well – what does that means then? Not to forget that after Kaname literally forced the blood of Shizuka Hiou down the throat of Zero, the silver-haired teen had bit by bit slowed down on the number of times of going into a bloodlust. Initially, it was once in every three days – now it became once in two weeks.

A vast improvement Akane dared say – and that's only the result of half bottle of blood ingested, because the other half bottle had been accidentally broke by Akira's recklessness. What would happened if Zero had ingested the supplied blood by one Shizuka Hiou prior to her dying in full amount? What would the situation be like then? Akane found herself wondering.

"So what do you suggest that we do then?" Wakaba Sayori questioned, sounding slightly amused now that she had gotten over the shock – of knowing Akane's real relations to Kiryuu Zero.

"Remove Haruto from the position of being the clan head for the Clan." Akane stated, solemnly.

"I see… and after that's done – who do you suggest to be taking up on the role of the new clan head?" Sayori asked yet again.

"Fujiwara Akemi or Satomi, either one of them is fine." Akane suggested, the two names she had supplied for Sayori are both from the branch of the initial clan head – prior to Haruto's lead. In addition, those two girls are direct cousins of Zero and Ichiru.

"I will discuss the issue with my mother after I went home tomorrow, and then I will speak to my father about my decision then." Sayori responded, and with that it marks the end of the talk between Akane and herself.

Early next morning, the parents of Maria Kurenai had came by to fetch her back – Zero was absent from the site, and only Yuuki was around to see her off. Maria had told Yuuki then to pass a message along to Zero, informing Zero to let Ichiru in on the fact that she had missed Ichiru. To which, Yuuki had agreed easily enough – seeing as she does not have the heart to turn down the girl's request.

Wakaba Sayori was doing last minute check on her belongings in the dorm room then, she too, was scheduled to leave for her hometown in another 30 minutes. She will need approximately 25 minutes to travel from the school to the train station, the memory of what had been transpired and shared between Akane and herself still swirling around in her mind.

Yuuki took it upon herself to walk her friend off towards the front gates of the academy, and then she bid her friend good-bye and trying her best not to look sadden by the departure of her friend. Walking back to the Chairman's place, Yuuki was trying her best to appear like her usual cheerful manner only to find that it was failing horribly.

"… Yuuki, lunch will be ready in 30 minutes time. Feel free to head for the bath before then." The Chairman had told the girl.

Zero, meanwhile, was in the kitchen cooking their lunch while the twins and Akane continue to sleep in peace. The twins had stayed up practically for the whole of last night, and Zero was more than willing to bet that they will only wake around late afternoon. Akane; though was harder to gauge – since she usually kept by the normal human being's body-clock routine but whom was to say for certain during vacation period.

"Nah… Zero-chan, do you think Yuuki is alright?" The Chairman asked as soon as the girl is out from earshot.

"… I have no idea." Zero allowed an inaudible sigh escaped from his lips as he replied to the Chairman's question.

"Good morning…" Akane then sauntered out from the tiny guestroom that she had taken the liberty to tidy up for her own use, claiming to say that she had no inclination to be sharing Yuuki's room while being here and Zero's room is cramped enough with the twins in there.

"Good morning, though its' approaching noon already." Zero greeted back in response, after taking a glance at the kitchen clock hung onto the wall – it was now 11:45a.m.

"Aa… looks like I wake just in time for lunch then." Akane mused, not caring that she would be skipping out on her breakfast for the day.

"Indeed…" Zero commented dryly, as he took in the girl's appearance.

"… Don't give me that look yet, Yuuki is in the bathroom so until she emerges from within – I'm stuck." Akane knew she look like a mess, her hair all tangled up during her sleep and she had yet to go through her morning routine either.

"I'll go and remind her about it then." Zero muttered under his breath as he headed towards where the common bathroom of the house was situated.

Knocking twice on the bathroom door, Zero called out to Yuuki reminding her not to stay inside for too long a time – if not she might get a cold from it.

"Ah… I'm coming out soon." Yuuki responded, but soon after let out a scream of fear that caused the three awaken beings in the house to charge into the bathroom promptly.

"What happened?" The Chairman had asked, while Akane mirrored Zero's actions in frowning.

"No… nothing… I just thought…" Yuuki murmured.

"Thought what?" prompted Akane.

"That the water appeared red to me like a pool of blood…" Yuuki responded in a daze-like manner, and almost immediately Akane blanched whereas Zero appeared to be utterly bewildered by Yuuki's words.

"…" Akane fought the urge to curse and swear aloud, she knew the memory seal was breaking and that is not a good sign. Something must have caused the girl to start awakening her sealed memories subconsciously… now they are left with two options, to either have Kaname 'waking' her up or to let her remember things by herself. Akane was more prone towards the first option, because that is far more reliable then the second one.

Who knew what could have happened if Yuuki were to let those memories of hers surfacing up by it-self – and with those memories like jumbled up pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, it would actually do more harm than good though. What Akane would give to call Kaname up and let him in on the information, but unfortunately there was no way she could have done it at this point of time. Moreover, there was nothing Kaname could do with him being so far away from campus anyway… Somehow she must have zoned out during the process because by the time she snapped herself back to reality, she was been entrusted with the task to tend to the twins while the Chairman and Zero took Yuuki towards the Hunter's association to flip through past records dating back to about ten years ago.

"What? – you can't be serious about that, right?" Akane questioned, sounding somewhat distressed by the decision made.

"…Chairman, tend to Yuuki while I speak to Akane in private." Zero eventually said, as he pulled Akane into the nearby study of the Chairman.

"I'm not looking forward to the trip, and neither does the Chairman – but Yuuki need to be put at ease with her fears. I would rather we bring her there, than to have her going out there alone – who knew what would happen then. Moreover, I have no qualms about having an irate pureblood after me because I failed to keep a lookout on his beloved Yuuki." Zero said, sounding strangely ironic on the last part of his words.

"… I think he would be more concern about the notion of you going to the association in your current state than Yuuki. You know what you are, and Yuuki – to put it mildly is just a mere human at this point of time."

"True, but I am a Kiryuu – they had it in them to know not to mess with me."

"Agreed, but please do not forget you are also a Fujiwara – and you know how that little detail will also create trouble for you over there at the headquarters."

"It will be fine; the Chairman will be there with us. Nothing will go awry, I promised. Now keep the twins entertained, will you?"

"Fine… but I swear if they messed up anything of yours – don't come after me for it." Akane muttered as she agreed to the request of her adopted parent grudgingly.

"I know… tell them I'll be back in four hours time, with chocolates for their consumption." Zero sighed aloud in resignation, as he pondered over his bribery act to make it up for the twins.

"Okay… okay, hurry along already – would you?" Akane then proceeded to shoo the silver-haired teen out from the room, she wanted to get down to her long over-due morning routine before the twins starts to wake.

Date started: 3/1/2013

Date completed: 3/1/2013


	29. Chapter 28

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: Continue from where I left off last chapter… in this chapter, Kaname would definitely come into play. I will skip the happenings at the association, instead concentrated on the twins' action in here. Again, I amended what I wrote three times before coming down to this version – try to bear with it eh…

Chapter 28 – Short interlude of Peace (?)

"Shiki… are you absolutely sure that you will not be joining us?" Touya Rima asked the redhead.

"… My family butler has been calling me relentlessly since 2 hours ago, questioning on the timing for my return." The male vampire model said, flatly.

"Alright then… do take care while being at home." Rima finally decided to let her co-worker and friend off the hook, but not before delivering such a sentence in solemnity.

She was no fortune teller, but she just has a bad feeling pertaining to her friend return trip to his hometown – this time around.

"I will, you go on and have fun with the rest of them over at Aidou's." Shiki Senri replied.

"That's needless for you to say." Touya Rima shot back at the redhead.

With that, the female vampire joins the rest of her friends over at the front of the train station – they are going to be taking a train towards one of the holiday resort of the Aidou family. This is Aidou's suggestion; he had called his father one day in prior claiming to say that Kaname-sama had decided to make a change to his holiday plans. Instead of heading over to the Aidou's residence, they will be heading for the Touya's family resort in its place. That was a disappointment for the elder aristocrat, but who was to argue with the decision made by their pureblood leader.

When in actuality, Aidou was going to sneak around his father's back and bring the lots of them to one of the unoccupied family resort instead. To make things work out well, he had even conspired with a family butler of his – informing the latter to stick by the words of them heading for the Touya family estate if his father decided to call up for a random check.

"Remind me again, why did I agree to this suggestion of taking a train over instead of just letting the drivers bring us there?" Aidou Hanabusa muttered aloud, when the entrance of the lot of them brings them under the scrutiny of a whole group of humans surrounding their environment.

"Because the suggestion was brought up by Kaname-sama…that's why you had agreed to the idea of traveling by train." Akatsuki shot back at his cousin while keeping wary eyes about the humans surrounding them.

"Right… and why did Kaname-sama suggested it again?" Aidou questioned next.

"To shorten the time journey that would take us over to that resort of yours." Ruka helpfully supplied from her position, next to Ichijo Takuma – trying her best to remain unfazed under the number of stares she is getting from the general male population on the train, excluding her kind of people.

"…" That successfully silenced the blue-eyed blond, sending him off into yet another routine sulking mood of his. Staring out into the scenery reflected and shown through the moving train's windows, the blond found himself thinking about a certain human girl whom is currently his interest of observation – Wakaba Sayori; as he wondered if the girl would have any trouble back home.

After all, according to what he had observed of the girl thus far – her recent phone conversation with her family members was not exactly 'wonderful' to say. He had almost seen the girl dump that phone of hers into the lake at one point of time.

The rest of the journey taken towards their final destination was engulfed in tense silence, seeing as how the night class members were generally on their guards around the humans surrounding them. Thankfully though, the train heading towards their desired destination point were not always fully packed and swamped with traffic – else as controlled as they are with their tendency to lust after human blood, they might still find themselves being challenged by the large number of human beings flocking around.

"Akane… where did you say Daddy is, again?" The wavy haired boy with lilac eyes asked, as he kept his eyes on the outside through the window panes of the house.

"…" Seated on the sofa couch in the living room of the Chairman's residence, the silver-haired boy rolled his eyes at his twin's question while keeping his eyes on the book he was currently scanning through.

"Akira, I've told you that he's out at the hunter's association with Yuuki and the Chairman just ten minutes ago – remember?" Akane sighed aloud from her position at the dining table, with her biology textbook opened up in front of her.

She was trying to concentrate on reading through the chapter before attempting to do any assessment work set by the subject's teacher as holiday homework, but she found herself failing in her task miserably because of Akira's tendency to check with her the location of a certain silver-haired parent of theirs, incessantly.

"Did he tell you what time he will be back?" The boy felt it in him to ask again, much to the frustration of his elder sibling.

"…No, he only said he will be back in four hour's time." Akane responded in exasperation, before throwing a look in the other twin's direction – seeking help silently.

Subaru Kiryuu sighed in resignation as he put away the book of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' which he had found great interest in reading, after browsing through the private collection of books that belonged to his beloved uncle Takuma.

"Akira, stop bugging Akane – she needs to finish up her holiday assignments and your incessant questionings on our Daddy's whereabouts is not helping. If you are indeed this bored… maybe we could just finished that game of ours, from last night." The silver-haired boy said, as he eyed the unfinished game of chess sitting quietly in another corner of the room.

"Eh…? I thought you said you wanted to finish reading that book today, and start on the next one?" Akira sends a questioning look in his twin direction, since that was the exact thing Subaru had told him when he had asked the boy earlier on in prior.

"…I changed my mind about it then, now would you like to finish that game of ours?" The silver-haired boy refrained from rolling his eyes, as he waited patiently for his twin to respond to his query.

"Yes!" An enthusiastic shout of the positive response was received from the other boy soon after.

"Thanks Subaru, you saved my life!" Akane beamed as the two boys passes her by to reach the side of their half-completed game of chess.

"I know and there's no need for you to exaggerate on your reactions this much." The silver-haired child retorted as he rolled his eyes at his elder sister's words.

Chess playing is the only time that Akira could maintain his silence, and it is the only game which Kaname Kuran had it in him to play with the boys. Then again, that was to be expected – Kaname Kuran is simply not a snowball fight person. Zero, on the other hand, would once in a while do that with the boys, but definitely not the pureblood. Therefore, when the said vampire pondered over the number of things he could have done to keep the boys entertained while spending time with him aside from the training hours pertaining to the powers that they had inherited from his side of the family – chess playing is the next logical activity to pick.

With the two boys pre-occupied by the game, Akane finally could concentrate on her task at hand – reading her biology text in peace. Silence is the only thing going on in the estate, saved for the occasional sound of the textbook being flipped and the sound of the pawns moving about the chess board. Therefore, when the first sound of the keys jingling were heard – the trio had all snapped their eyes up towards the entrance way.

"Daddy!" The twins voiced out in unison, as they went forward to greet the trio in the midst of entering the house.

Zero allowed a smile of sort to break across his features as he handed the bag of chocolate treats to the boys. Satisfied that the boys are now no longer crowding about him, Zero trudged into the inside of the house wearily.

"Are you okay?" Akane asked, upon taking in the sight of how pale Zero had appeared now as compared to before.

"I'm fine… slightly winded, but fine." Zero responded, trying to push the disturbing images that he had seen back in the headquarters of the hunter's association away.

"Did anything unpleasant happen there?" Akane cocked her head slightly to the left as she voiced her doubts across, regarding the silver-haired teen with intent as she did so.

"… Just saw something undesirable over there, that's all." Zero muttered aloud, deciding to spare Akane the details of just how the Chairman of the Association had bait his reaction by bringing him into a room that is filled with the strong stinging scent of the blood.

Apparently, that was a room that contain the so-called precious internal report submitted by the hunters' whom got it off somewhere off the 'dead'. The pungent smell in the room had nearly send him off into another moment of bloodlust then, then the Chairman of the Association had took one look at his expression and commented something about Kaname Kuran – the pureblood.

Truth be told, he was too pre-occupied then with the task of controlling his urge to get some blood into his system that he had failed to register most if not all of the Chairman's words. The only distinctive thing he remembered spilling forth from the lips of that man was for him to try and get some of the pureblood's blood into his body, for it was rumored that the blood of a pureblood would indefinitely helped to prevent the inevitable fate of the ex-humans falling into the state of a 'Level End'.

That disturbed him greatly, and when he responded that he will not stoop to that level just to survive for a longer period of time – the expression of the man in front of him then, struck him as a 'hypocrite' for a while. Thankfully, Yuuki's cries of distress then had successfully get him out from that room which reeked of blood and once he came back out into the corridor way – he felt relatively better, and even the bloodlust had subsided somewhat.

"I see… still I think it will be better for you to feed." Akane stated flatly ignoring the look of surprise on the silver-haired teen's features as she threw a bottle of blood over which the young man had easily caught it with his hands.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Zero felt stupid as he voiced his doubts aloud, directed towards Akane.

"Obviously, it's my powers at work here. Every noble have their own specialty, just like Aidou with his ability to wield ice and Akatsuki with the ability to control fire. Shiki has his blood whip; Ruka with her powers of wind; Takuma I am not so sure since I never see him fight with his powers before, he was always using that katana of his when slaying the enemy of sort. However, mine was the ability to read the thoughts of anyone so long there is eye contact at work." The sandy haired female vampire smiled in amusement when she takes in the dumbstruck expression of Zero then, before the dumbstruck gave way to annoyance.

Akane then hurried out from the room where the silver-haired teen was, she certainly does not want to be facing off an irate Kiryuu Zero. The man might not be doing anything harmful to her, but the sheer idea of being subjected to a long-winded nagging session from the man about the hundred reasons why she should not be using her powers on him is definitely not something she wanted to deal with – right now.

Aidou Hanabusa sighed inwardly as he listened to the words tumbling forth from the lips of Ichijo Takuma, grandson to the Head of the Vampire Council – Ichijo Asato. If there was anything he failed to comprehend about this particular vampire – it was the former tendency to be obsessed over anything in relation to the human lifestyle. Heck, he was even willing to bet that if it was not for the fact that too much sunlight will give the former a major headache to be dealing with – the former was more than willing to opt for the day-class schedule than the night-class schedule which the green-eyed blond vampire was being subjected towards.

"Ichijo Vice-President, care to enlighten me on the reason behind your insistence to try one of those 'sleepover parties' and 'pillow fight' thing?" Aidou Hanabusa questioned, with an arch of his eyebrow.

"Well… isn't that what the usual teenagers does on vacation trips with friends?" Takuma responded, with his index finger pointing to his chin – looking thoughtful.

"…I thought that is a scene you'd witnessed from one of your manga volumes?" The blue-eyed blond retorted, sarcastically.

"I've checked with Akane too… she says people does do it, once in a while." The green eyed vampire responded, after a moment of silence.

"Fine… but those are humans, no?"

"She says occasionally a vampire does it too!"

"Oh… if I may inquire, did she tell you whom is it?"

"Eh… her best friend, Asami."

"…" The pureblood, Kaname Kuran nearly choked on his drink then – while he turned disbelieving eyes upon his childhood friend. Is Takuma so desperate to have even drag his future daughter in – on this topic of discussion?

"Asami…, isn't there a last name for it?" Aidou continued to prompt.

"…" The Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory mumbled something under his breath, but it was too soft for everyone to catch – so Aidou repeated his words as he pressed on for the answer, again.

"Ichijo… the full name's Ichijo Asami." Throwing caution to the wind, Takuma Ichijo announced in all its glory, sounding proud of it even.

"Ichijo Asami … I supposed that is the name of your future daughter?" A quirk of an eyebrow, as the comment slide easily out from the lips of one Akatsuki Kain.

"…The one and only vampire that do that sort of thing just have to be your daughter eh? Just go to show how much an oddball you are, and it went down to influence your future daughter as well. By the way, did Akane ever inform you the name of your future spouse?" Aidou Hanabusa asked suddenly curious.

"Hanabusa, why do you even want to know the name for Ichijo's future spouse?" Akatsuki Kain questioned his cousin with his eyebrow raised – he hardly thinks that his cousin would be that snoopy for issues that does not concern their Kaname-sama.

"To advise that poor lady to never let Ichijo Vice-President had a hand in their daughter's education; it was bad enough with him this 'strange' – no point letting him influence his future offspring too." Aidou Hanabusa responded, matter-of-factly with both his hands up in the air.

With that, everyone burst out laughing including a certain pureblood that was outright smirking at his childhood friend's 'inside joke'.

"…" The green eyed vampire was silent for a moment, before he turned pleading eyes onto his pureblood leader – only to have Kaname stared at him for a moment before breaking out into a full blown laughter.

"Kaname!" Takuma fumed, as his face redden with embarrassment now.

"I apologized, its' just… you reminded me of Akira when you do that." The pureblood masked his laugh by coughing a few times into his fist, before addressing his childhood friend.

"Well… good job, Vice-President. I would have thought it would take more to get Kaname-sama to really laugh, but you'd done it so effortlessly!" Akatsuki decided to save the distressed green eyed vampire then by coming up close to pat the said vampire in a comforting manner on the shoulders, while he speak.

"Gees… thank a lot!" Takuma muttered under his breath, before a look of longing took its place on his features. "How I wish Akane and the twins could be here…at least they would indulge me in my hobbies."

"Well you could always just backtrack and find your way back to the academy – I'm sure Chairman Cross would not mind taking in another stray. Furthermore, I am more than certain – the people over there, saved for Kiryuu would be more than willing to satisfy your interest in having a sleepover party or a pillow fight – whichever you desire." Akatsuki Kain interjected in a logical manner.

"Yes, either that or you can just go back to your own home. I certainly would not mind your absence for this particular vacation, since we are already missing out on one person." Aidou Hanabusa added on.

"Aidou… how could you say that?! Akatsuki… am I really that much of an annoyance for you two to be dealing with that the two of you are so eager to send me back home?!" Takuma Ichijo had all but wailed aloud in a dramatic manner then.

The two cousins sweat-dropped in unison upon the sight, but before they can say anything else – the green eyed vampire had all but clung onto their pureblood leader commenting about how the two of them has been bullying him all these while.

"…There it goes again…" Touya Rima remarked from her spot, fighting a smile from tugging at the corner of her lips.

"I know… I understand, but it cannot be help seeing as how we are the guests now and that they are the hosts for this place." The pureblood patted the green-eyed vampire on the head gently, and spoke in a slow but deliberate manner.

Aidou Hanabusa spluttered unintelligently, before proceeding to yell aloud in frustration. "EXCUSE ME! When the hell did I ever mention anything about wanting to chase you people out?!"

"You didn't exactly say it in that manner, but you hinted about it." Ichijo Takuma responded then, still using his pitiful voice and expressions on the blue eyed blond aristocrat.

"…Fine! You can stay, heck – you can even take the liberty to call those people up and invite them! I don't care anymore!" The child-like blond had all but thrown his hands up into the air, surrendering against the Vice-President of the night-class. What is the point of arguing with him, anyway – since he never did won any in the first place.

"…Poor Hanabusa, even with us being away from the academy – he still failed to escape from his tendency to fall for those tricks hidden up the sleeves of our Vice-President and ended up being a source of entertainment for our dear Kaname-sama." Ruka Souen commented from her position next to the silent model – Touya Rima.

"So… can I call Yuuki up and invite the lots of them over?" The Vice-President now turned towards their resident pureblood leader and asked for the permission to do so.

"…No, you may not – please try to not let my efforts of coaxing the twins into cooperation with me on this issue to go in vain. I meant what I say to them, and I believed you know me enough to judge that I am not one to go back on my words." The pureblood, while tempted by the idea refused to play into his friend's hands.

"Aww… you are no fun at all!" The green eyed blond wailed aloud, again.

"…" The onlookers fell silent, as they witnessed just how patient their pureblood leader was with the obviously nutcase of their Vice-President.

"Rima, come now – we shall go and explore the house." Ruka suggested, not wanting to stay on longer to watch that stupid exchange between her pureblood leader and the green eyed vampire.

Meanwhile, back in the academy grounds – a sandy-haired vampire girl sneezed for the umpteen times in a row – and ended up being the subject of observance for the rest of the evening.

"Honestly, I am fine – quit poking me with the thermometer. I am certain that I am not coming with influenza, as for my sneezing – I honestly think it to be the brilliant work of someone mouthing off behind my back." Akane emphasized when she noticed the silver-haired teen marching towards her direction with a digital oral thermometer in hand.

"Still, it's better to be safe than to be sorry. Now open your mouth!" Zero practically ordered for the girl to obey his words.

"…" Akane huffed in annoyance, glaring at the thermometer stick with venom – that Zero had practically took chance when she tried to open her mouth in order to throw back a retort to stick that offending piece of gadget into her mouth. Now she could only fume silently while she waited for that thing to 'beep' with her body temperature.

"See, I told you I am fine!" Akane muttered aloud, after the temperature reflected on the thermometer cleared her off as 'healthy'.

"Like I say, its' never hurt to check things out for sure. Why are you so against the idea of taking body temperature, anyway?" Zero questioned, unable to comprehend why Akane was kicking up such a big fuss over the mere issue of temperature taking.

"I know I know… Akane's never a fan of taking medicine, she hated them. The only kind of drug she had even bothered taking are the blood tablets, but that is because – that is a necessity that she cannot go without." Akira piped up.

"I see… so Akane's afraid of taking medicines, eh?" Zero commented with a wry grin of sort, eyeing Akane strangely. The girl's so bold at times that Zero wondered whether or not she had anything that she is afraid of… turns out, medicine is what she feared.

"Hey! I protested that – its' not that I am afraid of taking medicine … it's more like – I find it extremely hard to swallow pills. If every medicine out there could be like the blood tablets whereby all I need to do is to drop them into the water and it will dissolve into liquid form – I won't have problems with them then." Akane claimed to say.

"No wonder you are always trying to get us sick together with you, then you can try and get the doctors to prescribe syrupy medicine for kids' consumption." Subaru interjected then, the mystery behind how his younger twin medicine would always finishes off earlier than those pills which the doctor had prescribe for Akane's consumption.

"… Subaru! I thought you promised that you won't tattle tale!" Akane shriek then.

"Technically, I did not tell on you – seeing as the 'Daddy' in front of us, is not the same one as that 'Daddy' in our time." Subaru reasoned.

"Still… they will know in the future, with you telling them now!" Akane responded, somewhat unhappily – even if Zero did not lecture her about it now, it does not guaranteed that the Zero in the future will not nagged at her about such acts on her part.

Zero, in the meantime, just shrugged and ignored the trio debating outside while he concentrated on getting the dinner dishes ready to be served in ten minutes time.

Date started: 3/1/2013

Date completed: 4/1/2013


	30. Chapter 29

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, Aidou and Kaname have a 'talk' pertaining to the Kuran family history. Ichiru make a slight re-appearance in this chapter, and also the unfortunate fate of one Shiki Senri after returning to his hometown will be touched upon. No twins' appearance in here…

Chapter 29 – In which Shiki Senri met his 'father' – Kuran Rido…

"Hanabusa, where's Ruka and Rima?" The sudden sound of his cousin's voice jarred the blond in deep thoughts out from his reverie.

"Hm..m? They went to the garden, I heard…" Aidou Hanabusa responded, slightly distracted – he had been in the midst of taking a stroll down his memory lane when his cousin spoke to him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The pureblood whom entered the room right after his childhood friend, took merely one look in Aidou's direction before voicing his query across to the distracted blond. Akatsuki Kain, on the other hand, left for the direction of the garden as soon as he got the answer that he wish from the lips of his cousin.

"Eh?" Aidou blinked, having not fully registered the pureblood's words yet.

"It's fine if you do not wish to share what's on your mind." Kaname responded then.

"No… its' just I'm confused behind the reason of the Kuran's couple suicide issue. Gathered from what I've observed, they don't seem to be the type of people whom would commit suicide on a whim." The blue eyed blond then started to speak, only to receive a sharp intake of breath from a certain vampire named Takuma Ichijo.

"Idol-Sempai…your question is too impromptu; Kaname will have trouble with answering it." The grandson of Ichijo Asato hurried to speak and clapped his hands over the eyes of the child-like blond, while keeping an eye out on Kaname's possible reaction to Aidou's question.

"Its fine, Ichijo – since he had it in him to ask, then most likely he already had some ideas pertaining to the issue." Kaname responded, after taking a moment of silence to contemplate on the situation before speaking up again – this time around, it was to address the blond aristocrat that question him.

"Aidou, you're right in saying that my parents are not the type that would commit suicide. As every one knew – the lifespan of a pureblood can last generally longer than any other nobles in our society. They do not die easily, and at so young a age. The only way they could have died when they did back then, was either by suicide or that they were murdered by another. My parents did not commit suicide… they were actually murdered." Kaname stated his tone flat and devoid of emotions – his expression however speak volumes.

Silence stung the air, as the three occupants within the lounge of Aidou's family resort took the silence to let what had just transpired to sink into them.

"Who is it? The one to kill your parents…? Was it the mad blooming princess too?" Aidou asked next, while Ichijo Takuma fought the urge to face palm himself.

"Aidou… I apologized, but anything else I would be unable to reveal to you as of yet." The pureblood responded, and actually had sounded apologetic. Though, he wondered just how on earth did the blond managed to involve Shizuka Hiou into their topic of discussion … right, the blond witnessed his killing that woman and draw his own conclusions behind his actions – most probably.

"Then why are you telling me about the reason behind your parents' demise earlier on?" The blond argued, not comprehending the pureblood's words.

"I told you then because otherwise you would not give up the idea of getting down to the bottom of things, by your own means. However, anything beyond the reason behind their death I would not reveal them to you – yet." The pureblood emphasized, and with that no other words were exchanged between the duos.

Shiki Senri stepped into the territory of the Vampire Council feeling uneasy; the sense of dread grew as he approached the figure of his uncle off his maternal side of the family. He had grown up without his father in his life, and his mother never had it in mind to tell him anything pertaining to that man whom fathered him – saved for the frequent comments of how he had grown up to resemble him, especially the look of his eyes.

Honest to speak, he would not have known himself to be the cousin of their pureblood leader – Kaname Kuran if it had not been for the twins' accidental slip of tongue. However, neither the pureblood nor he had made any attempt to carry out any conversation pertaining to that missing father of his.

"Ah… there you are, finally here." Shiki heard his uncle said, as he ventured forward to reach the elderly man.

"What is this regarding to; I hope it had nothing to do with succeeding your seat on the council." Shiki commented as he neared the man.

"No… it has nothing to do with that, but something else entirely. It is about time that I showed you a secret of our family to speak." The elderly man said, as he beckoned for Shiki to follow his lead down towards a basement room of sort within the council.

"This is our secret – for some particular reasons it had been kept here all this while. May I have the pleasure to introduce you, your father." The elderly man announced, as he gestured to the coffin and glances towards his nephew's direction.

"What the…!" Shiki felt his eyes widening at the sight that met his eyes, the coffin was flooded with blood it would seem – and it appeared to be disgusting to his sight.

"How disgusting…" the comment was out from his lips before he could stop himself and that was soon followed by the sound of a child giggling aloud. Snapping his eyes towards the source of the laughter, he was caught off-guard by the sight of a kid with different eye colors sprouting out words that do not fits his age.

"Is that the kind of words that should be said in front of your father?" The child had asked, smiling innocently up at Shiki as the words came tumbling forth from his lips.

"Although regeneration was already in process, but it seems my current outlook is the limit. Therefore, I've always been looking forward to meet you – the grown up version of you."

'Those orb with different color… it fits the description of the child given by Yuuki Cross…' Shiki thought, as he found the reason behind his uneasiness that day following the end of the party. He was jarred from his train of thoughts, when he heard his uncle telling the kid with his father's soul in it that he was sorry to have kept him waiting – and then his eyes widen at the sight of a bloody hand reaching out to grab him. With that, he knew no more…

Two hours later, Seiren entered the room where Kaname Kuran was – with Ruka Souen some distances away putting some flowers into the vase of the room.

"How is it?" The pureblood asked, trying to sound unaffected but it was failing horribly – his eyelids had been twitching since the hour after his 'talk' with Aidou Hanabusa and it had bothered him greatly, since then.

"It had started… my lord." Seiren responded, as she knelt in front of her pureblood lord.

Behind Kaname, the bunch of beautiful flowers Ruka was attending to then burst into flames stunning the female blonde – causing her to gasp in shock.

"How I wished he could have just remained where he was…" Kaname muttered aloud, with his face half-covered with one of his hand.

Back on the academy, Yuuki avoided the rest of the members staying in the residence of the Chairman and went off to the privacy of the deserted girls' dormitory building for some time alone. She was deeply troubled and bothered by the records that burns up when she flipped and reached to the page that she had wanted to check and see for herself, the events pertaining to that winter night ten years ago. The record burning up with no warning in prior seems to be hinting at her that somebody was purposely preventing her from looking that event up, by her own means and it unsettled her greatly.

"Yuuki… what on earth are you doing out here in the girls dormitory?" The sound of Zero's voice jarred the chocolate-haired girl from her thoughts, as she looked back up at the intruder in surprise.

"Zero… even if it's in the middle of a vacation, you should not waltz into the territory of the girls dormitory just like that." Yuuki argued, as she tried to steer the topic away from her troubling mind.

"…You are still thinking about it, aren't you?" Zero prompted, the girl was far too easy for him to read – way easier than that pureblood brother of hers.

"Zero… why do I keep on having the feeling that my memories were being suppressed by someone else and do not want me to remember them?" Yuuki had asked, sounding extremely bothered by the issue.

"Yuuki…maybe they are doing this for your own good. Some memories are better to do without…" Zero said, slightly distracted and unknowingly informed the girl that her memories might have really been suppressed by another through his slip of tongue.

"Zero, what you mean by that?! Do you know the reason behind why I can't seem to remember anything from the point beyond my being adopted by the Chairman?" Yuuki pressed on, and by the looks of how Zero had avoided her gaze then confirmed her suspicion.

"No… I know nothing about that, I'm just putting my point across – that if your suspicion of someone hindering your decision to retrieve your memories back; they might very well be doing it for your own good. What if your memories were something as horrible as what I had went through?!" Zero hurried to speak, throwing out his own experience to the girl in order to ward off further questioning – inwardly cursing a certain pureblood for telling him too much information about the pureblood's relationship with Yuuki.

"…" Yuuki fell silent, but did not stop herself from observing Zero Kiryuu with an unreadable gaze in her chocolate orbs. Somehow Zero's reasoning had sounded a little too abrupt, and in a rush… Zero was obviously hiding something from her, and was very adamant on keeping her from finding it out. Still, there was nothing she could have done to force the answer out from Zero – because if she had a way to get answers out from the teen; she would not have to resort to any of those stupidity acts in prior.

"Come along now… dinner's ready and awaiting for your presence." Zero beckoned for the silent girl to follow his lead, as he strolled out from the territory of the girls' dormitory and headed for the direction of the Chairman's residential area.

Wakaba Sayori entered the privacy of her father's study with dread; she had just finished her conversation with her mother in the privacy of her home kitchen under the cover guise of aiding her mother with the doing of the dinner's dishes. Her mother had been relieved to know of her decision, and had mentioned for certain that Fujiwara Yumi would be informed of her suspicion pertaining to Haruto's conspiracy with the hunter's association.

"Enter!" The commanding tone of the study's occupant caused Sayori to falter for a split second, before bracing herself for what was to come as she pushed open the door leading to her father's study.

"Father…I've come to you with my stand pertaining to the issue of Kiryuu Zero and future allegiance to the Fujiwara's Clan." Sayori stated her tone impartial and her gaze unfazed as she stared into those orbs of her father.

Fifteen minutes later, she emerges out from her father's study in a composed manner although the redness in her cheeks claimed otherwise.

"Yori…?"

"Oniisan… not now…" The hazel brown haired girl started, putting a stop to her elder brother's words before turning around the corner and headed for the privacy of her own room.

Back in the privacy of her own room, Sayori ignored the stinging feeling of the slap across her cheeks by her father in prior as she worked on the rest of her holiday homework. For the rest of the holidays to come, Wakaba Sayori failed to let anyone else surrounding her discovered the 'cold war' taking place between her father and herself. At least, her younger sister cannot detect any of it. She was thankful in a way, with her brother and her stance already being on opposite sides – her younger sister would be free from it all together.

Kiryuu Ichiru entered the halls of the Fujiwara's residence situated somewhere in the town of Chiba prefecture, a brunette around his age was awaiting his arrival then.

"Kiryuu Ichiru, I presumed?" The brunette started.

"Yes, and you are …?"

"Satomi… Fujiwara Satomi." The brunette responded with a small smile of her own, as she turned on her heels and started to lead the younger Kiryuu twins towards the inside of the estate.

"Pardon my intrusion, but Father – Ichiru has reached." Fujiwara Satomi knocked twice on the door leading to the privacy of her father's study, as she spoke.

"Good, let him in and you may leave afterwards." The man from within the room responded.

Fujiwara Satoshi, a man in his late forties turned around and observed Ichiru then. A frown marred his features upon the sight of the long katana held in red sheath, before shifting his glance away from it. The two stood staring at one another unmoving, until they heard the obvious click in the door signaling the departure of the brunette.

"May I inquire the reason behind your visit here today?" The man started, as soon as he was certain that no one else was on the other side of the door.

"I bring with me a proposition for you." Ichiru wasted no time in cutting to the chase, bringing up the reason behind his arrival to this estate at this particular point of time.

"What does this proposition of yours entails then?" Fujiwara Satoshi questioned next.

"How does getting back the position of being the clan head sound to you?"

"If I may ask, how do you intend to do that?"

"I have an agenda to fulfill, and this agenda of mine required for me to worm myself into the association."

"I see… and how do you supposed that I could help you with that? I thought you would have knew, my relationship with the association all these while hasn't been exactly good."

"That I already know of, however, the current clan head is another matter on this issue entirely."

"Justified, so what do I get in exchange for bringing you to my cousin to speak?"

"A channel for you to gain inside information as to what the agreement between Fujiwara Haruto and the Chairman of the Association pertained to. I trusted that news of a possible conspiracy between those two had reaches you already, no?" Ichiru prompted.

"I see that you have already done your homework prior to your coming over. Very well then – do stay for the night, while I get someone to establish contact with the other side and arrange a meeting for the two of you." With that said, Fujiwara Satoshi pressed a button on his intercom to get a fellow servant over to guide Ichiru out and away from his study.

Once Ichiru was out from the man's vision range, the forty years old middle-aged man dropped himself wearily into his chair and sighed aloud.

"Yukari… It seems like no matter what I do, I can't seemed to prevent your two sons for getting stuck in the middle of it all…" The man murmured to himself, as he rested his head against his chair in exhaustion.

Akane stared at the calendar sitting atop of the Chairman's work desk in the Study room, and frowned. The previous call coming in from Shiki Senri requesting for permission to return at a slightly later date for classes seemed kind of odd to her, despite the Chairman reassurance. The reason provided by Shiki Senri was that he was tied down to a job at hand, and yet – according to what she knew of… the red-haired vampire teen never ever went on a job without the companionship of one Touya Rima.

Her mind raced with the various possibilities that could be contributing to Shiki's oddity behavior, when one thought in particular stands out to her – in her jumbled mind of torrents. Still, she willed herself not to think too much into the situation as of yet – nothing could be said for certain until the night-class members returned from their vacation. It would do her no good to call up a certain ice-wielding vampire to verify her doubts, because whatever it is – Kaname would not want her to react on rash impulse. Everything was under the pureblood's control – Akane kindly reminded herself.

True to her premonitions or sort, further away from the academy grounds – a certain green eyed vampire received a call for him to go home from his grand-father. Wincing slightly, Takuma Ichijo slowly inches himself away from the rest of the nobles and headed for the room of their pureblood leader.

The said person had taken to hide himself in the privacy of that guestroom of his within Aidou family estate since several days ago, following the return of Seiren from the council. Seems like the pureblood was having some trouble in keeping his powers in control since the arrival of whatever dreadful news the former had received through the help of Seiren.

"Is anything the matter?" Kaname's voice draws the unusually solemn Takuma out from his reverie.

"Yes, something had cropped up at home that requires my attention."

"Something to do with Ichijo Asato, I surmised?" The pureblood prompted.

"Yes." Takuma gathered there was no point in evading the subject, for it seems to him for a split second that Kaname was actually kind of expecting it.

A sigh escaped from the lips of the pureblood before he could stop himself, and after which – Kaname decided that he might as well let his pretense slipped up for a second as he regarded his childhood friend under close scrutiny gaze.

"…" Takuma Ichijo forced himself not to gulp nervously upon being subjected to those scrutiny eyes of the pureblood, beads of perspiration started to form on his forehead as he remained unfazed under those intense gaze of his friend. It was not until Kaname shifted his eyes from him, did he finally felt relief flooded through his senses. For a minute there, he had thought he would 'die'.

"Ichijo…do bear it in mind that once given a chance, I would not falter in my decision to slay your grandfather." Kaname eventually allowed the words to spill forth, prior to the green eyed vampire's departure from the room he was situated within.

"… I understand, Kaname-sama…" With that said the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory proceeded back to his own allocated room for usage and started to pack for his trip home.

Date started: 4/1/2013

Date completed: 4/1/2013


	31. Chapter 30

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, the first half consists of the night-class coming back to school and the second half on Takuma Ichijo's experience back home. The twins are back in this chapter and I swear this is yet another challenge for me to write…

Chapter 30 – In which the new term starts…

Three weeks of vacation period come and go easily enough, while the majority of the day-class students had complained about not having enough fun yet. The night-class was entirely another matter altogether. Reason being – the atmosphere that hung around their resident pureblood leader over the last week was completely weird, and tensed so much so that they had actually hoped that they were back on the academy grounds.

At least, the twins and a certain hunter would be around on campus to distract the attention of their pureblood prince and indirectly, allowed them some breathing room. Over the past week, anything that they said in the presence of the pureblood need to be watched lest they ended up irritating the already 'disturbed' leader of theirs, unintentionally.

"Welcome back!" The sound of the female guardian greeting them caused a tremendous amount of relief to flood through their senses.

Kaname watched the way the fellow nobles had behaved upon the sight of the school guardians, and sighed inwardly. He supposed he could understand the caution they had taken to develop around him over the past week, since his powers were always snapping and leaking out by it-self and probably resulted in some paranoia among his fellow friends and supporters. With an inaudible sigh, he diverted his gaze upon the familiar silver-haired figure standing guard to the side of his favorite girl of all times – Yuuki Cross.

Kiryuu Zero surveyed the area and took note of the absentees among the members of the night-class, as expected – everyone on the attendance list is present, with the exception of the Vice President Takuma Ichijo and the male model – Shiki Senri. Without even the need to turn around, he could feel those eyes belonging to a certain pureblood being centered on him.

"Yuuki, this is a gift for you… I came across it by chance, and thought it would be nice to give you this." Kaname knew Zero was purposely ignoring him, so he chooses to disregard the male guardian for the time-being and diverted his attention towards the girl instead – with a smile that he usually reserved for her.

The gift was a rose embalmed in a bottle, frozen to sustain it ever blooming state – Yuuki stared at the gift in hand as she wondered briefly how did they managed to get the rose inside the bottle without ruining it at all. The failure to get a proper response out from the female in question had Kaname raising an eyebrow up as he started.

"Yuuki, are you disappointed that it's not edible?"

"Huh…? What … No, not exactly… I just thought it exquisite …" The female guardian mumbled a quick response to it, successfully in getting a smile back in return from the pureblood prince.

"Oh…is that so?" Kaname asked, sounding bemused – last year his gift towards the girl was a few local snacks from the town he was visiting during vacation, and the girl was extremely happy back then. This year though, he chose to get Yuuki something different – but it seems like given the choice, she would still prefer to get snacks for gifts instead of something that is nice to look at, but cannot be eaten.

"Honestly… Kaname-Sempai, I'm not really that into 'food' okay?!" Yuuki protested, with a huff of annoyance in her tone of speech before she suddenly shifted her glance to an odd looking object held in her beloved sempai's other hand.

"Kaname-sempai… " Yuuki started, her eyes staring straight at that unknown object in the pureblood's hands.

Kaname Kuran followed the direction of Yuuki's stare and had to resist the urge to smile upon his eyes landing on the object held in his other hand, and then he said.

"Yuuki…this is not food either."

"…" Yuuki's mouth twitches once, then twice – before she responded with an odd expression visible on her face. "I know that isn't food…but I'm curious what exactly that is?"

"Aa… this is apparently my choice of gift for Zero-kun." Kaname smiled charmingly, as he told the two guardians and then he lifted the object held in his other hand and pushes it towards the direction of one Kiryuu Zero.

Kiryuu Zero glared at the offending item that was being held out to him by a particular pureblood vampire, the aura of extreme irritation rolling off his body in waves as his eyebrow twitches in annoyance. _Of all the possible things to have gotten me, he just has to go and get me a Voodoo Doll as a gift?! Should I praise him for his unique sense of humor, or should I just blast him into oblivion?! _ - The silver-haired hunter thought inwardly to himself as he contemplated on his next possible response, pertaining to that so-called gift for him.

Eventually, he started to reach for that doll – only to crush the head of that voodoo doll with a smile that resembled a grimace. "I guess a word of thank you is in order then, since this particular gag gift from you was put to its ultimate use immediately." Zero stated through clenched teeth, as he continue to grab on to that doll which was now headless and seemed to be extremely creepy. After all, that voodoo doll given by the pureblood was a life-size one…

"…" The onlookers stared on at the scene taking place in front of them with silent anticipation, the nobles were flickering their gaze in between their pureblood leader and the silver-haired guardian with curiosity. They were wondering just how exactly Kiryuu Zero would react to this particular side of their pureblood leader.

"Anou… Kaname-sempai, I have something to ask you later on …" Yuuki started, cutting in between the two males – putting a stop to their 'staring' match.

"Is that so? Then perhaps, you would like to drop by the dormitory later on … but for now, I believe you have a job to do – no?" The pureblood prompted, successfully diverting Yuuki's attention back to her task at hand – which is taking the attendance of the night-class members.

"Aaah…! Hold it right there, Akatsuki-Sempai! Don't go anywhere yet… I haven't checked your attendance and scanned through the luggage contents yet!" Yuuki had all but exclaimed aloud as she dashed across the compound heading for where the said vampire was about to walk off elsewhere by himself.

"It's nice to see that she is still as energetic as always…" Kaname commented.

"What are you expecting from her, if not energetic in her performances?" The silver-haired teen shot back at the pureblood.

"So…did anything happen during the period whereby I wasn't around?" Kaname asked, again.

"That - I will let you know in a short while." Zero responded, nonchalantly.

"Oh… and what do you want to do now?" Kaname arched an eyebrow elegantly, as he voiced his question across to the male guardian.

"Now, it's time for a routine check of your belongings… I'm sure you'd heard what Yuuki told Akatsuki in prior?" Zero responded, and then proceeding to remind the pureblood about what Yuuki had exclaimed earlier towards the direction of one Akatsuki Kain.

"I see… so did I pass the inspection?" Kaname asked, directing his question towards the ex-human with mild amusement after the silver-haired teen handed his suitcase back to him.

"…Kuran, what is it with you and your tendency to annoy me in full gear today?!" Zero had all but snapped, first the voodoo doll and now asking stupid questions too?!

"Well… you did ask for a routine check of belongings to be conducted, and I obliged your request – so why don't you humor me for once?" The pureblood responded then.

"FINE! You passed the inspection – OKAY?!" The silver-haired hunter snarled as he stalked off towards the direction of the common class vampires, trying to put as much distance between the pureblood and him-self until he could get his temper to cool off and try to attempt another go at civility.

"Yuuki, I'll handle the rest of them – you go on and conduct those routine luggage checks on the nobles." Zero state in an ordering tone of voice, leaving the girl no room to raise any objections to his decisions.

He was annoyed by a certain pureblood, and would like to have the next thirty minutes or so in peace and quiet. That, however cannot be done when he was faced with the aristocrats of the night-class. The Common Class vampires though, are another case entirely – at least with this cohort of vampires, they knew enough to not go and provoke him when he was in a bad mood.

"…Kaname-sama, I know you're upset about something that happened during the vacation period. Still, there is no need for you to build your happiness on others' miseries – you know? Annoying Zero might do you some good in the areas of stress venting, but please – try not to make that a habit, I do not want to end up with a set of unhappy twins' siblings to deal with." Akane finally made her entry into the scene, as she commented on the pureblood's behavior as of current.

"Then pray tell what do you suggest for me to do then?" Kaname throw back at the sixteen years old, curious to see what his future adopted daughter has to offer.

"If you need to spar with Zero, just put your request in – I am certain that he would not turn it down. However, do bear it in mind to minimize the possibility of resulting in a bloodshed scenario – while I may have tons of useful charms on hand that could be used on a whole platoon of agitated vampires. I certainly hoped I would not be resorting to those particular measures…" Akane regarded the pureblood calmly for a few minutes, before she gave her response. After which, she proceeded over to where the silver-haired guardian stood and helped the former in the task of screening through the belongings of the common class vampires.

"Yuuki, attendances have all been taken – there are no other absentees with the exception of Ichijo and Shiki." Akane waved the clipboard she had taken the liberty to snatch out from Zero's grasp as she spoke to the girl, standing at the opposite side of her.

"Okay… noted, both Ichijo-Sempai and Shiki Sempai had already called in earlier on to inform the Chairman pertaining to their late return, so I think that's all." Yuuki mumbled to herself, as she took the chain of keys for the Moon Dormitory out from her pocket and passed it over to the awaiting pureblood.

"Neh… you'd said Shiki called in advance with regards to his late return, just now - right?" Touya Rima suddenly spoke up, addressing the adopted daughter of the school's Chairman with an uneasy look on her features.

"Eh…? Ah, yeah… he did call in – about three days ago. The Chairman's the one whom picked up the call; he said something about being needed at some film shot site or whatsoever… I'm not exactly sure." The female guardian replied, hugging the clipboard to the front of her chest as she said.

"…" Touya Rima said nothing, but judging from the frown marring her delicate features one could easily guess that something was bothering her, and it has something to do with a certain male model by the name of Shiki Senri.

"Rima…?" Akatsuki prompted, when the girl kind of zoned out on them all.

"Nothing… its' just I can't seem to establish any form of contact with Shiki…at all." The female model vampire murmured, and if it were not for the fact that Akane was standing directly beside the said female – she might have missed out on it altogether.

_Takuma has being called home by Ichijo Asato… and Shiki Senri was unreachable… after his visit to the vampire council under his maternal uncle's request. Speaking of which, how did the half-dead Kuran Rido revived him-self – again? _Akane found herself pondering over the absence of the two nobles, and somehow felt it in her to link it all to a certain pureblood by the name of Rido Kuran.

"Father, you're back!" The sudden sound of the twins' call jolted Akane back to reality, apparently she too, had followed suit in Rima's example and zoned out when she should not. Thankfully, she did not have the habit of thinking out loud like Yuuki did – if not … Kaname would have her head on a silver platter - that much is certain.

The topic of Rido Kuran was always considered a taboo subject in the future Kuran-Kiryuu household, it was far worst than bringing up the subject of one Shizuka Hiou and Kiryuu Ichiru.

"Yes, I'm back. How are the two of you faring today?" Kaname allowed his gaze to shift from the nobles and centered upon the twins.

"Good! We helped Daddy in preparing breakfast today!" Akira piped up immediately, as he ignored the whole lots of onlookers and instantly attached himself to the legs of the stoic pureblood – making full use of his puppy eyes, hinting at the man to pick him up.

Beside Akira, the silver-haired boy of six merely turned his attention elsewhere – centering his gaze on the lonely female lagging behind everyone's back.

"Aunt Rima?" Subaru tilted his head slightly to the side, as though trying to figure out just why exactly is the reason behind the said vampire's sadness.

"Aa… Subaru, is there anything you want from me?" Touya Rima snapped herself out from her daze-like mood as she turned her attention towards the silver-haired boy.

It was initially unnerving for her to deal with the boy, because Subaru resembled a certain silver-haired guardian with a nasty temper when being faced. Thankfully, Subaru's characteristic and personality wise were more leaning towards their pureblood leader – the only thing she had to look past was the boy's exterior outlook in general.

"…You don't happen to have Pocky on you, or do you?" Subaru found himself asking, eventually – since he had only just realized that between the two of them – there is no other common topic for discussion saved the exception of snacks treats.

Touya Rima blinked once, then twice – before she registered the boy's words and her hand reached automatically into her coat pocket. From there, she withdrew a box of unopened 'Pocky' in the flavor of the typical chocolate which Shiki had adored – passing it over to the boy with ease.

"Thank you, Aunt Rima!" Subaru smiled as he took the offered snack politely, as he expressed his gratitude.

"You're welcome…" Rima found herself smiling at the boy, despite her uneasiness over the absence of her usual partner.

Meanwhile, Akira by now had comfortably settled in his young 'Father' arms – and was enjoying every minute of it by snuggling in deep to the chest of Kaname Kuran.

Seiren observed the scene enfolding in front of her with relief, the twins has indeed proved to be a good source of distraction for the pureblood prince. At least, the pureblood had appeared to be at ease now instead of the uptight stance that he kept on during most if not all of the vacation period. The thought of the twins brought Seiren's attention towards the silver-haired hunter standing some distance away, even now the sheer idea of the twins other parent happened to be Kiryuu Zero still struck her as a shock. Nonetheless, if Kiryuu Zero is exactly what her pureblood lord had decided to take as a future life-partner – she supposed she could accept that.

"…" Zero frowned, as he felt unwavering gaze upon him – scanning the environment rapidly; he allowed his senses to guide him to where the stare had originated from. Upon the registration of the owner of those unwavering stare, Zero's first reaction was a complete bafflement. He was having trouble pin-pointing the exact reason behind those stare, since he did not exactly do anything to Kaname Kuran – right? Snapping at him was nothing out from the ordinary, and that guard of his should already know it by now right? So why the hell was he being subjected to one of those 'stare' from Seiren?!

"Zero… do you mind helping me with that suitcase of mine? As you can see, I currently have my hands full." Kaname's words draw the silver-haired guardian's attention back to reality, and immediately he snapped his eyes over to where the pureblood was.

Kaname Kuran was standing there by the side of a sakura tree with Akira nicely balanced in the arms, and is obviously looking in his direction with some form of expectation in those eyes of his. Grudgingly, Zero muttered something incoherently as he proceeded to stalk over to where the pureblood stood and make an angry grab at the suitcase that sat by the feet of the dark-haired teen.

"Come along then, unlike the likes of you – I do not have that much time on hand to spare!" Zero growled aloud, as he passes the pureblood by – the keys leading to the entrance of the Moon Dormitory had somehow found its way into the hands of the silver-haired teen.

"Young Master Takuma, we have arrived." The sound of the driver calling out his name brought the green-eyed vampire out from his thoughts.

"Thank you for the trouble you've taken to pick me up." Takuma smiled as he expressed his gratitude towards his family's chauffeur.

"Its' no trouble… in fact, the pleasure's mine to be of service to you – Sir." The response came almost instantly.

With the short exchange of words done, Takuma opened the door of the car and stepped out into the front porch of his family home. The family butler and servants are already stationed outside the front door leading to the interior of the house, obviously waiting for his return.

"Young Master Takuma, we have been expecting your arrival." The servants greeted him in unison, before the butler beckoned for one of the maids to come over and lead him to wherever his grandfather was currently at.

The Vice-President of the night-class fell into footsteps behind the maid dutifully, walking down the hallway heading for the direction of the 'Study' – he recognized.

"Master, Young Master Takuma is here." The maid knocked on the door twice, before opening up the doorway to the 'Study' as she announced to the occupant within.

"Quite a rare thing for you to have come back when I ordered you to…" Ichijo Asato turned half-way in his chair, as he regarded his grand-son still standing in the doorway.

"It would be a problem for me, if you were to pop up in the academy grounds like before – grandfather." The green-eyed vampire responded, smiling awkwardly as he did so.

"I was just checking in on the condition of Kaname-sama, and honoring my duty as his supposed guardian. Why would that be causing any trouble for you?" The elderly man responded, keeping his eyes on whatever document he was reading and not chancing a glance towards the direction of his grand-son.

"If my memory served me correctly, Kaname-sama should have already rejected your offer to remain his guardian upon his coming of age – prior to his entering the premises of the Cross Academy. Moreover, there is still the agreement between him and the council – regarding the issue of not having the council people poking their noses into the business of the Academy." Takuma felt it in him to remind his grandfather.

"I was just expressing my concern for his welfare, words has it that he was getting awfully close with the Aidou's."

"That is because they are much easier to mingle and interact with – as compared to you, my grandfather." Takuma replied, trying his hardest to reign in his underlying anger at his grand-father's attitude. No wonder, Akane finds it extremely hard to control her-self when this man is in front of her – Takuma was finding it a chore to handle too, now that he knew just how hypocrite his grandfather could be.

"You have to understand the areas of my concern, whilst the Aidou family wasn't exactly going against the laws of the Vampire Council. They are not exactly on good relationships with the council either, in fact, if anything – they were more leaning towards the concept of royal ruling back in the olden days under the lead of the purebloods. Topping it off together, aside from the Shiki's and the Ichijo's – the rest of the students currently in that academy are on neutral standings, or they were standing on the same line as the Aidou's. How could I not afford to be worried under this situation?" The old man reasoned.

"I can very much assure you that Kaname-sama has no intention in the fields of gaining authority, and this has nothing to do with the council – it was my own opinion as being a friend to Kaname." Takuma voiced out his thoughts to his grandfather.

"You'd better get rid of those naive thoughts of yours, I'm sure that you are still very much aware of your role in there… or do I have to remind you all about it again? You do know I placed a lot of my hopes on you…"

"Grandfather, I…" Takuma made a move to interrupt, but was dismissed by his grand-father with a wave of hand.

"No point dawdling… I didn't exactly call you home for a chit-chatting session. Come along with me, there is someone that I would like you to meet up with." Ichijo Asato said, cutting in his grand-son in the middle of generating a response to his words as he made a move to head out from the privacy of his 'Study'.

'…Someone whom he wanted me to meet? What is he on about now?' Takuma frowned, as the thought fleeted by in his mind before he made a move to catch up with his fast moving grand-father down the corridor way.

"Who is it this time? Somebody from the pureblood clan of Shirabuki…?" Takuma prompted, he had known by now that his grandfather was obsessed with the idea of establishing all kinds of relations with the pureblood family.

"You'll know when you meet him…" That was all the old man was willing to say, as he continue to lead his way down the corridor to where the meeting will be taking place in silence.

Takuma followed behind in confusion, not knowing for sure what to expect. They soon come to a stop in front of a room normally used by his grandfather to conduct meetings with his associates, the two maids standing guard to the outside of the room then proceed to slide the door open – giving the Ichijos' a good view of the happening inside.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting…" Takuma watched in silence as he observed his grandfather's action from the corner of his eyes, frowning inwardly when he recognized those mannerisms as the same type his grandfather had used in the presence of his pureblood friend – Kaname.

"What do you think of the arrangement provided?" Ichijo Asato asked next, causing Takuma's frown to deepen itself – while he tried to pin-point the identity of their 'guest'. Seeing as how the guest had been back-facing him all this while, he could not tell for sure who was it although judging from the voice used by their guest… it did struck him as kind of familiar.

"Not bad…" And then the response from the guest came, as he slowly started to turn towards the Ichijos.

"My lord, it's my pleasure to be able to serve you …" Takuma saw his grand-father said with utmost respect, and visibly note the way how his grand-father had responded to the guest's comments still in a kneeling position on the ground. When he finally managed to shift his glance away from his grandfather and diverted them towards their 'guest' – he felt his own eyes widening in shock. Standing in front of his very eyes, was none other than his room-mate cum the cousin of Kaname – Shiki Senri.

Date started: 4/1/2013

Date completed: 5/1/2013


	32. Chapter 31

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, Yuuki's memory seal continues to weaken and a certain pureblood had to make up his mind soon... Ichiru's impending transfer into the academy and Zero's thoughts pertaining to it... Also, you'll get to see Zero taking on a parenting stance with the twins – being firm and all…KanZe moments towards the end.

Chapter 31 – In which Akira was lectured…

Yuuki Cross stood in the middle of a corridor way waiting for Zero to emerge from the Chairman's office situated within the administration building of the school. She was gazing out into the scenic view outside through the window panes, when she saw blood or rather she thought she saw blood being splattered. Then she felt it … eyes of intensity boring into her back, and reacting by mere instincts – she unleashed her anti-vampire weapon, the 'Artemis' and struck.

"…" Kaname Kuran raised a hand up and blocks the attack effortlessly, while he stood silently awaiting for the light of recognition to dawn back into those unfocused irises of Yuuki.

"Kaname-Sempai…" Yuuki whispered in recognition, before she blanched a shade of pale white as the full impact of her actions sets in on her. Why has she attacked her favourite senior of all times? Failing to comprehend the reason behind her actions, she panicked as she apologized profusely to the pureblood for her actions taken.

"It's okay… there is no need for you to beat yourself up for it. It is good for you to be wary of your surroundings, and the fact that you'd attacked me proved to show that you are being alerted of another's presence around your vicinity." Kaname assured, before he pondered over the words that he had heard from Akane in prior – pertaining to the issue of the memory seal on Yuuki weakening.

"Still, that does not give me the right to attack you…" Yuuki argued, knowing that she would be in for it if her actions taken today were known to another.

"Calm down, Yuuki!" Kaname started in on the girl once he realized that Yuuki was slipping into a panic attack of sort.

Slowly, Yuuki managed to calm herself down as logic started to worm itself back into her original panicky mind. "Kaname-Sempai…"

"Yes, is anything the matter…Yuuki?" The pureblood prompted in a gentle manner.

"…No…nothing…" Yuuki eventually said, discarding the idea of questioning the said vampire whether the reason behind her emptied past was his doings.

"Kaname-sama, there's something that require your attention back in the dormitory." Seiren's voice rang out from behind, causing the pureblood to sigh as he turned his attention back to Yuuki with slight hesitation.

"Yuuki, would you be alright if I leave you here alone?" Kaname asked, he thought it might be better if he just waited around for Zero to emerge from the Chairman's office but it seems like the issue that request his attention cannot be hold off any further.

The girl nodded somewhat uneasily, and the pureblood left specific instructions behind for Seiren to guard Yuuki until the arrival of a silver-haired guardian while he headed back to the dormitory to resolve whatever issues that required his immediate attention.

"Ah… Oh my…" Kaien Cross started, when the sound of something breaking jarred him from his process of searching for some particular documents on his messy work desk.

"…That's why I always tell you to keep your table tidy!" The silver-haired teen muttered aloud as he took in the sight of a teapot smashing into pieces upon been knocked off the table by the Chairman in the haste of going through the pile of documents awaiting his attention on the man's working desk.

"What a waste… To think that Kaname-kun brought me this rose tea that I was thinking of trying out… and now it's all spill." The Chairman whined upon the sight that met his eyes.

"…I'm more than certain that he brought you a full can of it, so quit whining and get back down to work." The silver-haired guardian fought against the urge to slap the clipboard held in his hands on the man's head, in order to snap the said person out from another of his whiny show of emotions.

"Still… it's such a waste." The Chairman grumbled, as he knelt down on the floor and picked the smashed pieces up – preparing to dump it all into the bin. Only to let out a shrill cry of pain, causing his 'adopted' son to turn towards him and snapped – again.

"What the hell is it now?!" Zero had all but snapped at the ex-hunter.

"I accidentally cut my finger with one of the sharp piece…" The man said tearfully, holding up his bleeding index finger for his adopted 'son' to see.

Zero took a deep breath to prevent him-self from yelling at the man, as his eyebrow twitches upon the sight that met his eyes when he turn around to check on the so-called wound of the Chairman. "It's just a tiny little cut, don't you think you are overdoing your reaction?!"

"But…it's bleeding, and while we are on the subject – do you want to lick it dry so that the blood that is spill will not be going to waste?" The Chairman then lifted up his bleeding finger towards the direction of Zero, rendering the said hunter speechless.

"For heaven's sake, can you and Yuuki stop doing this to me?" Zero muttered aloud, thinking back to that one instance – sometime last week, the girl asked him the exact question after cutting herself in the midst of chopping up carrots. The sheer memory of that previous event combined with what had occurred now, caused the silver-haired guardian to face-palm himself.

"… Alright, it's okay if you don't want to lick it dry – I'll just get a band-aid for it then." The Chairman then responded, nonchalantly as he makes a grab for the first aid kit within his office cabinet.

"Gees… you should have done it in that manner right from the start. Anyway, I'm just here to report – all the night class members have returned with the exception of those two whom had called in earlier to notify us of their late return." Zero throw back at his adopted father, as he turned on his heels and prepared to exit the office.

"Eh…! Hold it, there's still something that I need to ask you." The Chairman hurried to speak, before his adopted son can waltz out from the office as he snatched the piece of paper he had been rummaging through his table for – up for the teen to see.

"…What the hell is that?" Zero questioned, eyeing the slip of paper with suspicion. Inwardly, he was wondering whether it was yet another order for him to execute some stupid mission issued by the hunter's association.

"There's someone whom wishes to transfer into the day-class, but I won't be able to allow him entry until you'd given your approval." The Chairman then said causing the silver-haired teen to frown in response before he marched over to take a closer look at the slip of paper held up by the Chairman for his inspection.

The slip of paper being held up for his inspection was an approval letter, to be signed by him – relating to his younger twin – Kiryuu Ichiru transfer into the academy.

"…Who submitted the application?" Zero felt it in him to ask, the issue of his twin transferring into the academy just seemed to pop out of the blue.

"You will be surprised… the application was put in by the hunter's association, but his referral letter and recommendation slip was from the Vampire Council." The Chairman responded an odd expression as he mulled over the situation.

"…" Zero felt the start of a migraine building, as he pinched the bridge of his nose wearily. Then he asked. "Can I have the bloody name of his guardian?"

"Fujiwara Haruto." The ex-hunter, current Chairman of the Cross Academy responded.

Upon the mention of Fujiwara Haruto, Zero felt his headache making a turn for the worst. Eventually, he merely grabbed a pen from the Chairman's stationery holder and sign on the damn piece of approval slip.

"Zero…do you think that this is wise?" Kaien Cross asked after the approval slip was signed and handed back to him for record purposes.

"Wise or not wise…I do not know for certain, but one thing is for sure. I need to have a good and long talk with him, and the only way I would be able to do so – was for him to transfer in. Only then would I be able to get a chance to really talk with him." Zero concluded his reason behind his giving the approval for Ichiru to transfer into the day-class.

"Yuuki… why on earth are you sitting down in the middle of the corridor and with your 'Artemis' fully activated two steps away?" Zero Kiryuu found himself asking, confused by the sight that met his eyes after he stepped out from the Chairman's office.

"Aa… Zero…" Yuuki started, before falling silent again.

"…" Zero then shifted questioning eyes towards the figure lurking in the back of the shadowy area, but he only took one look in that direction before turning back towards Yuuki.

Apparently, there was no use in trying to get an answer out from Seiren – that guard of Kaname Kuran would definitely not say anything prior to being given permission from that 'lord' of hers. Looks like a trip down to the Moon Dormitory is in order… Zero thought, as he hurried to pull the distracted girl up from the floor and into a standing position.

"Come on… let's get you back to the dormitory for some rest." Zero muttered aloud, as he herded the girl off and nodded in acknowledgement towards the female vampire whom had kindly stayed around to guard Yuuki until his arrival.

"Eh… but classes…" Yuuki started, blinking up at her silver-haired companion in confusion.

"The classes can wait… not that it would matter anyway, nothing much would be taught on the first day of a new term anyway." Zero interjected flatly.

Seiren disappeared from Zero's viewing range as soon as Yuuki was up and about, and while Zero herded the girl off for some rest – he fought the urge to grimace when the touch of Yuuki's anti-vampire weapon caused some electric shock or sort to travel up his hand.

'Strange…' Zero thought, while it had not been exactly comforting for him to use any form of the anti-vampire weapon saved for his 'Bloody Rose' before – they certainly doesn't caused him to burn up upon the touch of it either. Either way, never one to let any external source deterred him in his actions – he sucked it all up and grabs the rod off the floor with a mask of indifference in place.

"Zero…?"

"It's nothing… come on, let's go."

Meanwhile, a certain pureblood was busy trying to settle some conflicting issues pertaining to a few of the common class vampires residing in the dormitory. Apparently, someone thought it would be good to 'nick' some of the candies from the twins' private stash in order to get rid of the after taste from ingesting the blood tablets.

It would not be that bad if they do it behind the twins' back like Akane usually did, but no … they have to 'steal' those candies right under the watchful eyes of Subaru. The final end result was to have Akira kicking up a big fuss over it, irritating Akane in the process and ended up with the girl invoking several nasty anti-vampire charms and sets them upon those common class vampires in the dormitory.

Seeing as it was the twins' candies that were taken without permission and the invoking of the anti-vampires charms was done by Akane…with the Vice-President of the dormitory unavailable, it now lies upon the shoulder of their pureblood leader to resolve the matter.

"Akane, take those charms off them now. Do not make me repeat myself!" This was the first sentence out from the resident pureblood's lips upon his return to the dormitory building.

"But Father!" Akira attempted to protest, only to have Kaname silencing him with a stern 'look'. Usually he would have glared if this was anyone else, but unfortunately this was Akira – one of his future sons with Zero.

"Akira… That's enough already, I'm sure that after this particular episode… no one would be daring enough to steal any of your snacks – in future." Kaname told the younger boy in a no-nonsensical manner, successfully in getting the sullen boy to stop his childish behaviour.

Kiryuu Zero entered the Moon Dormitory upon that exact moment, only to find the younger twin looking visibly upset and Akane going around removing nasty charms off the common class vampires. Quirking an eyebrow up in question, he found himself voicing his doubts across to a certain pureblood that appeared to be rather weary of the whole situation in general.

"I didn't come at a wrong time, did I?"

"No… it is fine. The matter has been resolved as of current. To put it simply, Akira here throw a temper because his snacks mainly his candies have been rummaged through by the lot of them standing there. Akane, having had enough of Akira's incessant whiny episodes decided to 'teach' them a lesson by invoking several nasty charms – that's all." Kaname Kuran summarized the whole fiasco and shorten them to it's' essence while relaying the situation to the silver-haired man.

"Akira, you are six years old – aren't you?" Zero asked, and when he received a nod from the boy – he continued on.

"Then why are you kicking up a big fuss over the issue of having your candies being stolen?" Zero pressed on, and his only response was silence from the boy.

"Daddy, I seriously think you should not allow Akira to keep those candies around anymore." Subaru piped up, much to Akira's annoyance.

"Subaru…!" Akira started, as he glared at his twin for meddling in the issue.

"What…?! I'm saying the truth, aren't I? You need to change your diet, at this rate you are going – I honestly think one of these days you are going to be the first vampire to be diagnose with diabetes." Subaru stated flatly, he had been keeping the diet plan of his younger twin set into motion by his parents from the future time-frame for some time now.

It seems like his little brother was taking this chance of being away from their parents to take in as much sugar as possible, and his current behaviour of exploding over some insignificant amount of candies being taken by the others was obviously the last straw for him to take. Therefore, he decided to reinstate the diet plan of his younger twin in the current time-frame which they are currently stuck within.

"Diet plan?" Zero and Kaname shared a look among them-selves, before beckoning for the elder twin to continue. Akane helpfully supplied the eating habits of Akira during 'their' time and the 'current' time, it was obvious that Akira's eating habits had taken a turn for the worst in terms of sugar rate consumption. It was at an exceptionally high level, and quite a scary figure at that.

"That did it – Akira, you are going to stick to the diet which your parents of your own time had planned out for you from this very moment onwards." Zero decided, as soon as he ran his eyes across the menu provided by Akane for his references.

The wavy haired boy pout up at Zero in protest, but the silver-haired guardian was not going to cave this time around. Sensing that his 'Daddy' was not going to relent this time around, Akira tried his puppy eyes look on his other parent – only to find his pureblood 'Father' avoiding any form of eye-contact with him. Eventually, he settled for throwing a glare combined with a childish pout of his towards his twin – inwardly blaming the other boy for sabotaging him.

To which, Subaru pretended that he did not see his twin's glare and continued on his reading task. And then the nightmare came for him, when he heard the younger version of his 'Daddy' throwing him into the same diet plan as Akira.

"Huh…? Me too… but why am I also subjected to that diet plan?!" The silver-haired boy turned questioning eyes upon the silver-haired hunter.

"Simple, you are the elder – are you not? So you should be setting a good example to your little brother." Zero concluded, taking a page out from his own mother's way of handling twins' siblings. That was exactly how his mother changes Ichiru's bad eating habits from before…

Behind Subaru, the initially sullen Akira beamed in satisfaction. Now he is balanced in a sense, since whatever he eat – Subaru had to follow. Whatever he cannot eat, Subaru would not be able to eat too! This is what being fair is all about, isn't it?!

"…Okay…I supposed." Subaru merely stared for a second before sighing out in resignation and then only to turn his attention back to the book on hand.

"So… did Yuuki ask you anything before?" Zero asked some time later when the twins had been send off to Akane's room for rest, while they entered the pureblood's room to speak in private.

"No… she didn't." The pureblood responded, as he flipped the light switches on – brightening up his room in the process. Although, they both could see very well in the dark but he just thought it might be better to have the lights on during the discussion.

"…However, you knew what she was intending to ask – don't you?" Zero took it upon himself to take a seat on the sofa couch situated within the pureblood's room, without having the owner to 'invite' him. An obvious sign of his easiness around the dark-haired pureblood, quite a vast difference from the experience he had when he was first being invited into the privacy of the pureblood's chamber.

"I believed I had an idea about it…it has something to do with her emptied past – isn't it?" Kaname allowed a sigh to be let out as he took a seat by the hunter, massaging the top of his temples wearily.

"You seemed rather tired…" The silver-haired hunter commented from his position, as he took in the sight of a weary Kaname Kuran. This is the first time he had ever seen the pureblood looking weary…so he was quite intrigued by the sight of it.

"I am tired." Kaname agreed easily enough; as he pondered for a minute to weigh his next options available and then he did something that completely throw the silver-haired hunter off-guard. He rested his head down on Zero's lap, and used one of his hands to block out the light emitting from the ceiling top where the chandelier was.

"Kaname…get up." Zero said, as he inwardly wonders just how much guts does the pureblood had in him to be daring enough to lay down on a hunter's leg. Did he not ponder about the possibility of him being shot?

"Zero…just shut up and let me rest for a while, will you?!" Kaname asked, and the silver-haired hunter thought he had misheard but is there really an underlying tone of plea somewhere in that statement of Kaname's words?

"…What happen during the vacation?" Unknowingly, Zero had soften his tone when he voiced his question towards the pureblood whom was now lying down on the couch with his head down on Zero's lap.

"I've told you about why Yuuki's memories were being sealed before – right?" Kaname suddenly asked.

"I think you did mention some of it… why?" Zero asked, looking down at Kaname as he responded.

"Do you want to know the rest of it?" The pureblood asked.

"…You know, it's quite strange that you are willing to tell me but unwilling to let Yuuki knows about it all." Zero commented then.

"I just wanted to protect her…" Kaname reasoned.

"Protecting her by withholding information from her? You know as well as I do, what she would do if she had no idea what exactly is going on – right?" Zero pinched in, his tone dry.

"I know… that's why I'm getting a headache from this whole situation." Kaname conceded, with the memory seal on Yuuki weakening – it would indeed be better if he just woke her up but part of him wanted to keep their bloody family history of theirs a secret from the girl…

"Still… you must decide soon. If not, she will bring it up to your attention – forcing you to supply her with an answer to it all." Zero kindly reminded, before the topic of discussion was forcefully steered towards the tendency of his bloodlust acting up.

"When's the last time you'd fed?" Kaname asked, after he finally had it in him to remove his head from the silver-haired guardian's lap.

"Sometime during the second week of vacation, I think." Zero replied, inwardly thinking back to that instance whereby he just got back from the association only to have a cheeky Akane making full use of her powers on his ignorance – to read his thoughts.

"Then it's about time for you to feed again, isn't that so?" The pureblood prompted.

"Your point is?" Zero eyed Kaname warily from the corner of his eyes; somehow he had a very bad feeling of what was to come.

"Can I have a taste of your blood? Of course, you get to taste mine in return." Kaname said then, causing Zero's eyes to widen slightly in shock before it gave way to sheer annoyance.

"In short, you want to mark me." Zero gritted out from irritation.

"Well… it is true if you want to put it in that manner, I was after all trying to put it in a more eloquent way of speaking. Besides, it wasn't as though I was going to take advantage of you – I did offer you my blood in exchange to it, didn't I?" Kaname argued, he had been yearning to taste Zero's blood for some-time now but because he knew how it would have unsettled the teen – he had been patiently waiting all these while. How he wished he could have just behaved like Shizuka Hiou back then, biting down hard without giving any thought…

"…" Zero stared speechlessly for quite some time; he was trying to comprehend the reason behind this abrupt request that was brought up by the pureblood. Kaname though, seemed to be having other ideas pertaining to the situation.

When the first hint of blood hits the air, Zero had snapped his eyes towards the pureblood immediately. Seems like Kaname Kuran had decided to adopt Akane's method of handling things – he actually make use of his sharp fingernails to claw at the side of his neck with hard force ensuring to draw blood. Despite the fact that Zero had yet to reach the period of his bloodlust stage, the slightest hint of blood in the air was enough to drive him into one.

"Damn you Kaname!" Zero cursed aloud as he felt his lust for blood setting in, and before long he was crossing over to where the pureblood stood with his fangs lengthen.

Kaname winced slightly when the bite came; he supposed he deserved the harsh bite from Zero – since he did achieve his aim by using underhand methods. Kaname remained still and held on to the silver-haired hunter as the man fed from the side of his neck, and before long he was feeling the first hint of faint.

'…He's really taking a lot from me as a form of revenging acts eh…' Kaname thought, and then he allowed his survival instincts to take him over – completely. Before long, his eyes was blazing red with the lust for blood and his lengthen fangs eventually pierced itself through the flesh of Zero's neck.

Date started: 5/1/2013

Date completed: 7/1/2013


	33. Chapter 32

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: Amended twice to get this out, hard chapter to write… I apologized in advance if there's any portion that goes slightly ooc… I edited this until my mind went a little 'off' so… make do with it eh. Not much of the twins in here, but I put in KanZe to cheer things up a little…

Chapter 32 – In which Kiryuu Ichiru transfer into the Day-Class...

Aidou Hanabusa was reading a book in the privacy of his dorm room, when the scent of their resident pureblood's blood hits him in full force. Almost immediately, he had dashes out from his room and into the corridor.

"Was that…?" There was no need for him to finish his question, because Ruka Souen had finishes off the sentence for him.

"Yes… Kaname-sama had bled." Ruka Souen stated flatly, her face taking on an unreadable expression.

The rest of the aristocrat members within the Moon Dormitory then were equally affected by the scent of Kaname Kuran's blood. Akane and the twins upon catching on to the lingering scent of the blood belonging to their parents' stepped into the hallways too, unlike the rest of the Moon Dormitory occupants' – they are merely there for damage control; if any that is.

"Seiren, what do you reckon happened in there?" Akatsuki Kain, being the logical one down here – sends the question towards the direction of Kaname Kuran's guard rendering the said female speechless.

"…" Seiren had no idea what to respond under such situation, because she had no ideas either. Thus, she ended up glancing towards the future trio's direction instead.

"Okay… so what if Kaname-sama bled some… being a pureblood doesn't make him a 'saint' okay?" Akane refrained from rolling her eyes upon the looks of those aristocrats surrounding them, they are all making it seem as though shedding some blood will caused the death of their beloved pureblood prince.

"The thing is – Kaname-sama is in there with Kiryuu, and bleeding no less. How could we not afford to be worrying for his life – under this circumstance?" Aidou Hanabusa pinched in, a frown marring his features as he said so.

"…Uncle Aidou, pardon me from asking this… but did you hear any gun-shots coming from in there?" Subaru Kiryuu interjected then, bringing up a valid point – Akane surmised.

"Well… no, not exactly…" The blond responded after a moment of contemplation.

"That did it, isn't it?! Since the bleeding is not a result from a gun-shot attack, then it cannot be anything serious to render us worrying for his fate out here – right? I mean, this is our parents we are talking about here. Granted, the younger version of them – but still them in all essence, no? If the three of us aren't even showing any slightest hints of being worry, then there is no point for you people to be fretting right?" Akane added in soon after, although she had inwardly worried there for a minute – wondering whether or not Kaname-sama had decided to heed her advice by seeking out a chance and opportunity to spar with Zero. However, like Subaru mention earlier – no gun shots being sounded means good news, right?

"Akane, not you too…" Akira then groaned aloud, drawing every one's attention to him.

"Yes, Akira? Anything you want to say?" Akane prompted.

"What is it with you people tendency to link the sheer presence of blood scent to them having a fight or sort? Haven't it occurred to you people that there is a chance of them feeding off one another in there? I know the scent is kind of mild with the pureblood's scent of blood overwhelming in here, but there is sign of another being's blood scent lingering here too – right?" Akira pointed out, his tone flat as he surveyed the group of people around him with a look of annoyance.

Upon Akira's statement, Akane felt her eyebrow twitching once then twice… and then she finally face-palm her-self.

"Akane…?" Subaru looked up at his elder sibling with a questioning look apparent on his features.

"No… it's nothing, history was already changed when we first got here… Therefore, it shouldn't even strike me as 'surprise' if they got bonded earlier to say. Besides, I highly doubted with that temper of Zero – Kaname-sama can succeed in his attempt to go all the way." Akane was mumbling to her-self, but seeing as she did not bothered to lower down her volume – it was loud enough for those who are standing closer to her side to hear things just fine.

"Hanabusa, no matter how upset you are – you are not allowed to barge in there! Do you get me?!" Akatsuki Kain whom was one of the unfortunate being to have caught wind of Akane's words, then turned his eyes towards his cousin and warned.

"EXCUSE ME… I am not that stupid, okay?!" Aidou Hanabusa had all but snapped in annoyance, he was already irked by the sheer fact that his pureblood leader had finally allowed himself to be bitten by Kiryuu and then Kiryuu had also allowed Kaname-sama to 'mark' him. That issue itself was already a blow to him, and then his cousin has to approach him with such a warning – as though he would be that stupid to attempt anything of that sort.

Further away from the dormitory building, another silver-haired teen that mirrored Zero in all sense of words saved for the different hair-style and choice of weapon stepped out from a car that parked just outside the academy grounds.

"Kindly remember your duty for being here, that is, if you still want to receive aid from my master for your revenging act." The man whom dropped Ichiru Kiryuu off at the front gates of the academy, stated pointedly.

"Of course, I would never forget my duty…" Ichiru Kiryuu, the younger twin of Zero – responded with a charming smile of his before stepping through the gates of the Cross Academy.

''Although… it still remained a mystery of whom is the exact person I'm looking to take my revenge on.' The silver-haired teen thought inwardly to him-self, as he bade the person whom sends him over farewell.

The person seated in the back of the car passenger seat was none other than the uncle of Shiki Senri, a member of the Vampire Council. Ichiru knew what he was getting himself into…on one side; he approached his maternal uncle seeking help to be brought into the hunter's association. Over there, he fed the Chairman of the association some fanciful tale of wanting to offer his service to the association while high-lighting the abilities of the Kiryuu Clan members.

Then he fed some theories as to how his elder twin would not be able to serve them any longer than before, because it would be only a matter of time for Zero to descend to the 'Level End' stage for an ex-human. To make things more convincing, he even offered to slay his own twin if the situation escalated down to that particular point of time.

Although, Ichiru highly doubted his elder twin would descend to that level that soon … the Kiryuu combined with the blood of the Fujiwara flowing through their veins had made sure of that. And if Shizuka Hiou did somehow managed to get his twin to ingest her blood somehow in one way or another, then probably the descend into 'Level End' would not even come close for his twin at all.

Well, that is if Zero did managed to get a hold of those blood… if not, worst come to worse – Ichiru surmised he would just have to persuade his twin into the idea of 'eating' him… should the worse scenario ever to occur. That should ended up with the same effect in the end… granted, the results would not be as good as ingesting the blood of Shizuka Hiou directly… but well, it would have to do .

Either way with the help of one very motivated Fujiwara Haruto, he succeeded in his task to gain the support of the association in no time. Of course the process was not to say without hurdles, but Ichiru had managed to talk his way through – using the excuse of him wanting to avenge Shizuka Hiou, and that insisting to say that Kaname Kuran had something to do with it.

Placing extra emphasis on the theory of if he could get his revenge work done, and then there would be no harms in teaming up with the hunters on the issue. The Chairman of the Association then wasted no time in bestowing upon him the duty to supervise and observed the doings of one Kiryuu Zero, then proceeding to prepare the paperwork required for sending him off to Cross Academy for his mission.

Prior to his entry into the association, Ichiru had also paid a secret visit to the Vampire Council. Over there, he met up with the Head of the Vampire Council – Ichijo Asato. Making full use of his relationship with Shizuka Hiou, he fed the former what he wanted to hear from him – tweaking a little of the stories which he had fed the hunter's association pertaining to his desire for revenge against his twin brother and one Kaname Kuran. Here though, he did not come outright in his speech at hinting that it was Kaname Kuran that killed his beloved Shizuka-sama.

Instead, he placed emphasis upon the fact that despite being a fellow pureblood member – the Kuran heir failed to step in when he should and thus causing the death of Shizuka Hiou by his brother's hand.

Ichiru claimed that his ultimate aim of coming to the vampire council was to attempt in getting help from them in order to avenge the pureblood princess of the Hiou clan. Ichijo Asato had promised to give the matter some serious consideration then, and just a little three days after his visit to the council – he was called in for another discussion pertaining to the subject which he had brought up to their attention.

Ironically enough, Ichijo Asato's plan for him was to infiltrate the academy and provide aid to a certain someone whom will be joining the night-class members at a later point of time. If the task was beautifully executed according to plan, then Ichiru would get all the help that he required in his quest for revenge. Ichiru had then complied with Ichijo Asato's request without questions asked; he was, going to do just that anyway.

All in all, Ichiru was going to be playing double-agent for both sides. He was spying on the activities for his uncle – Fujiwara Satoshi, pertaining to the conspiracy act between the hunter's association and Fujiwara Haruto. Next, he had some sort of agreement with both the hunter's association and the vampire council pertaining to his desires for revenging Shizuka Hiou.

Ironically enough, both the council and the association had wanted him to infiltrate the academy with different purpose in mind – of course. The funniest thing here though was that Ichijo Asato did not even bat an eyelid upon being informed by him that the application for enrolment into the school had already been submitted under the name of the hunter's association.

In fact, not only did the noble vampire failed comment on that sheer fact; if anything he seemed pleased about it even. To create more confusion for the Chairman and probably the resident pureblood of the academy – that old man even put in a referral and recommendation letter under his own name and the vampire council to be send off for the academy's assessment.

The sight of the Chairman's residence area being neared caused the silver-haired teen to shake his head to rid his mind of such thoughts. Carefully, he replaced his mask of smile back on as he made his way to the Chairman's place – spinning up a plausible tale to feed the man later.

The feeling of sharp fangs piercing through the side of his neck snapped the silver-haired guardian back to his senses, and almost immediately he glared at the culprit – a certain pureblood by the name of Kaname Kuran.

Zero removed his fangs from the pureblood's neck hastily when the first sound of his cell-phone blares to life, seeing as he had placed his cell-phone in the back of his pants pocket. With him being held in the pureblood's embrace, there is no way he could have reached that gadget by his own means.

"Kaname, kindly passes me my phone!" The silver-haired teen growled at the pureblood that is still engrossing in the task of tasting his blood.

Kaname removed his fangs from the teen around the same time he passes the phone gadget over, and while Zero busied him-self with the call. Kaname licked the remaining blood of Zero's off his lips, as he savoured the wonderful taste from it. Then he shifted over to the cabinet situated next to his bed, and pulled out the drawer.

From there, he withdrew a box of the blood tablets which he had kept around for his usual consumption. Dropping a few tablets into the glass of water he had poured for his own usage in prior, he waited until the crystal clear water turned red as the tablets dissolved completely before downing everything down his throat in one shot.

"I see… okay; I shall speak with him at a later point of time then." Zero told the Chairman before he ended the call.

Turning around, Zero arched an eyebrow up at the pureblood that was downing a glass of blood tablets.

"Is that sufficient already? I knew I had taken quite a vast amount from you…" Zero commented then, he had not been thinking straight when he took from the pureblood earlier on but now as he came back down to his senses after the bloodlust retreated...he actually found himself being worried for Kaname's well-being much to his annoyance.

"I've taken some from you too… that combined with this should be just sufficient to curb that bloodlust of mine." Kaname responded, as he placed the emptied glass back onto the top of the bedside cabinet.

"…" Zero fell silent then, fingering the side of his neck where the bite marks from the pureblood prince was starting to heal and seal by it-self. He could feel the distinctive tingle that he usually felt when the one whom marked him was being neared.

'Great … freaking great, just when I thought I've finally escaped from that woman I just had to be bitten by another pureblood. Well… good thing he wasn't the one whom marked and turned me. If not… there's no guarantee that I won't shoot.' Zero thought to himself.

"So… what's that call about?" Kaname started, wanting to get rid of the awkward silence that now hung between them following the end of the so-called 'feeding' session off one another.

"The Chairman calling me to inform that my twin has just arrived on campus." The silver-haired guardian responded, slightly distracted for he was still in deep thoughts pertaining to the previous 'feeding' session.

"Kaname…did we just created a bond or sort?" Zero sounded hesitant when the question was being asked, then again – it was to be expected. Considering that Zero was not a vampire by birth and being originally born in a family of hunters – the last thing he will go researching is on the vampire's way of life, outside of their 'bloodsucking' nature.

"A tentative bond was indeed formed between us with our earlier actions." Kaname replied, choosing his words carefully not wanting to trigger off any nasty reactions from the ex-human seated opposite him as of now.

"A tentative one meaning it wasn't exactly complete in all essence then?" Zero asked next.

"Well… no… technically, the bond would only be considered complete after intercourse. Ah… don't worry, even if we did complete the bond earlier on – you won't be falling pregnant yet. For that particular thing to happen, it required another ritual procedure of sort…" Kaname added as an afterthought, successfully rendering the pale looking ex-human to flush crimson at his words.

"Damn it Kaname! Stop putting images in my mind with your words!" Zero flushed crimson upon the pureblood's mention of them doing the deed to complete the bonding…before it turns into a darker shade of red when he heard the word 'pregnant' from the pureblood's lips.

"Fine, I'll stop… but are you embarrassed?" Kaname had to refrain himself from smirking outright upon the red-faced Zero…

"Kaname Kuran, can you stop that already?!" Zero had all but snapped then, he knew he was blushing like a damn virgin on the wedding night. Still he cannot help it, with all those suggestive images in mind – how could he not flush crimson at it?! And the pureblood had the audacity to tease him for it?

"Stop what?" Kaname had asked innocently enough, a smile playing on his lips – he was truly enjoying this, he decided.

"Argh! You…Hell, this is it! I am getting out of here!" Zero allowed a groan to escape from him before he made a move to stand and stalked towards the door of the pureblood's room with every intention to get out of this place, immediately.

Once Zero closed the door and stormed out of the pureblood's room, Kaname Kuran could hold in his laughter no longer. Zero looked absolutely cute back there, especially when he was blushing…Granted, Yuuki had looked adorable when she flushes deep red too but… with Zero, it's just different.

Yuuki is a girl, and girls from what he'd gathered blushes all the time. Zero, on the other hand, is anything but that – it was easier to witness him going around scowling than to see him smiling, let alone to say see him blush.

Outside the room, majority of the noble class vampires whom was hanging around waiting to see how the situation will turn out to be - were genuinely surprise to hear full blown laughter coming from their pureblood leader. Then followed by the sight of an oddly flush looking Zero Kiryuu stalking down the stairways before breaking into a brisk-like walk and by the time the silver-haired guardian stepped out from the dormitory building, it had long become a mad dash already.

"Was it just me, or did Kiryuu really appeared to be flush just now?" Aidou Hanabusa questioned, still staring at the widely open front doors of the dormitory building.

The twins and Akane took one look towards the direction of the pureblood's room, and then towards the doorway where Zero had fled from… before sharing a look among themselves and then promptly bursting out into laughter. Inwardly, Akane was wondering just what on earth did the pureblood do that managed to get Zero Kiryuu to flush a deep shade of red. That alone, was enough to render the girl to suffer from insomnia …for that particular night.

"Akane… have you seen Yuuki anywhere around?" Zero Kiryuu asked when he strolled into the class around noon time whereby lunch was in process.

"Huh…?" The sandy-haired girl lifted her head up from her napping position as she blinked sleepily to the silver-haired teen in front of her, looking absolutely bewildered by the question.

"If you are here to look for Yuuki, she's with your brother in the hallway just around the corner." The newly returned figure of one Wakaba Sayori responded, her expression cool and collected as she regarded the bad-tempered guardian.

"…" Zero cursed inwardly before he turned on his heels to make his way over to where Sayori had mentioned the duos are.

"…" The two girls stared as the elder Kiryuu twin stalked off in search for his younger twin and a certain female guardian in a huff, before sharing a look among them-selves.

"Have you got any idea as to why Ichiru's here?" Akane throws her question out to the silent girl.

"Unfortunately … I have no idea. However, I do know that he had paid a visit to the Fujiwara's estate situated in Chiba during our vacation period." Wakaba Sayori responded, before settling back down in her seat with her sandwiches in hand.

"That's all you're having for lunch?" Akane arched an eyebrow up in surprise.

"I had a full and heavy breakfast this morning. Also, this is actually meant for Yuuki's consumption." Sayori said as she explained herself to the girl seated behind her.

"Oh… I see… Let me know when the next period begin, I'll take chance of this opportunity to catch some winks." Akane then told the girl seated in front of her.

"… Did you have a late night last night?"

"You had no idea…" Akane commented dryly, it was quite the opposite. She had had an early night the day before, but found herself suffering from insomnia because she was too busy wondering about just what exactly had transpired between the younger version of her 'adopted parents' prior to her finally falling asleep at 2 .a.m. in the morning.

However, that was something she would not be sharing with outsiders and therefore following the end of that comment she had all but dropped her head back down on the table and took her so-called nap leaving Wakaba Sayori alone to ponder over her words.

Meanwhile, the hallway just around the corner was Yuuki with a determination look on her face, and one Ichiru Kiryuu with a strange expression on his features.

"I think I now know the reason why Zero always had his eyes on you." Eventually, the younger Kiryuu twins commented.

"What do you mean by saying that?" Yuuki frowned as she asked.

"…" Ichiru threw her a look that clearly said 'Are you an idiot?' before making a move to answer the girl's question. "You took me out here alone by your own will, but have you even given your own safety any thoughts prior to your actions?"

"Huh…?" Yuuki looked absolutely bewildered by Ichiru's words, that caused the teen to mutter under his breath – something that sounds eerily to 'how on earth did Zero managed to put up with her' kind of statement.

"Haven't it occurred to you that I might be a potential danger to you?!" Ichiru questioned his tone flat as he tried desperately hard from withstanding the urge to shake some sense into that dense girl in front of him.

"Oh…" Yuuki then fell silent, and grudgingly coming down to the conclusion that she might have once again acted on that sheer impulsive traits of hers.

Ichiru, meanwhile, fought against the urge to face-palm himself upon the look of reflection being spread across the features of that female guardian.

"Yikes! Its Kiryuu no. 1… he's stalking over here!" One of the random girls, whom stood around the corner admiring the handsome features of Ichiru, suddenly gasped and flees from the area.

"…" Ichiru had no idea what to make of his elder twin's obvious status of being a terror to the majority of the school population. Yuuki, on the other hand, seemed to be guilt-ridden by the knowledge of Zero coming around the corner and most likely it had something to do with her impulsive acts.

The first thing Zero did upon his reaching to a stop in front of the duos was to make a grab for Yuuki and then pushes her behind him in a defensive manner. After which, he proceeded to speak – gritting out each words that spill forth from his lips with extreme irritation.

"Ichiru… if revenge is all that you wanted to do down here in the academy, kindly centred it all on me instead of dragging in the innocents – so to speak!"

"…Don't mind me saying this, but can you kindly keep a leash on to that busybody defender of yours?! She was the one whom dragged me out here alone, and not the other way round! For today, I'll just let it slipped… but if there is ever a next time, I would not be letting her off the hook this easily." Ichiru throws back at his elder twin, before turning on his heels and stalking off for that lunch of his or whatsoever.

With the departure of Ichiru Kiryuu, the remaining twin turned towards a particularly guilt-ridden girl and glared. He had the urge to berate the girl for her stupidity acts, but he suppressed it down. How many times has he warned the girl to not attempt anything like this, and he was certain that a certain pureblood did the same to Yuuki as well. However, it seems like neither the pureblood nor his advices the girl had made it a point to remember in her. One of these days Yuuki was going to drive them insane with worries, Zero believed.

"Come along, lunch is ending. Let's head back to class now, I'm sure that friend of yours must have remembered to get you something from the cafeteria earlier." Zero eventually said, as he made a move to head back to where the classroom was situated.

"Zero… you are alright with this arrangement – being in the same class and all…?" Yuuki asked, sounding slightly hesitant and wondering if she should storm over to that adopted father of hers and lectured the former or something…

"…It is fine, and I meant to inform you earlier about Ichiru transferring in… but I guess it must have slipped from my mind." Zero responded then, after sighing aloud at Yuuki's words of being worried of his emotional state.

"Eh…? You mean you knew that HE was coming?!" Yuuki exclaimed from behind, causing Zero to wince slightly at the high pitching voice of the girl. Looks like his sense of hearing was getting more and more sensitive these days, he certainly did not have any problems dealing with Yuuki's occasional high-pitching tone of voice before.

"Yes, I know… I had to sign a bloody approval slip before the Chairman allowed his transferring in. I'd just forgotten to inform you this morning." Zero kindly explained his reasoning to the upset girl, all the while keeping himself from the urge to roll his eyes at Yuuki's childish display of annoyance towards him and the Chairman, in general.

Date started: 6/1/2013

Date completed: 8/1/2013


	34. Chapter 33

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In which Shiki and Takuma finally make their appearances… although the Shiki is actually Rido in this one. A little of father-son bonding between KanZe and the twins towards the end, I know the chapters are getting less fun to read/write about. *Roll eyes* but … it has to be done…so bear with it eh… I'll try to put 'fun' in it as I write though. Amended a mistake in here, accidentally put chocolate instead of lilac eyes for Akira. but it's all changed now XD Sorry for the mistake :P

Chapter 33 – Troubles Brewing…

"Kya! Idol-Sempai, please look at me!"

"Oh my gods… Kuran-Sempai looked at me just now!"

"Oh… Ruka-sama, my beloved goddess – would you please glances at me for once!"

The usual rowdiness of the class change-over routine caused the vampires of the night-class to sigh inwardly as they stepped out from the gates of the Moon Dormitory building. Yuuki Cross, the female guardian of the academy was as usual bustling around trying to keep the students in line and away from the members of the night-class in general.

The male guardian, on the other hand, had on his mask of irritation on as he controlled his side of the students easily. All he needed to do was to sends a glare in those enthusiastic girls' direction – they would tone down their level of excitement on their own accord. Further away from the crowd, another silver – haired teen stood hidden from view with the aid of the trees surrounding him as he watched on the period of class change over in silence.

"Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you, Yuuki." The pureblood had greeted the female guardian, as per normal upon his exit from the dormitory gate. And then he shifted his glance over to where Zero Kiryuu stood, and nodded to the other guardian discreetly.

'Do drop by the Moon Dormitory tonight.' Zero could read from the pureblood's eyes, and while he was irritated by the pureblood's blatant and open staring in his direction. He still obliged to the pureblood's request with a curt nod of his own. And then, the stare in his direction was gone and diverted elsewhere towards Yuuki – most likely, Zero surmised.

The eye-contact shared between Kaname Kuran and Zero Kiryuu did not go unnoticed by another similar set of lilac eyes that is watching them from a distance. A frown marred the younger Kiryuu twins' expression as he took in the nods being exchanged between both parties.

It certainly does not surprised him that the pureblood was making an effort in being civil to his twin, but the surprising thing here was that the pureblood was adamant on receiving response from that twin of his. Then when he saw his twin sending a nod back towards the pureblood with an obvious look of annoyance, Ichiru had to admit it took all his will power to not drop his jaw in slack then.

'Was there anything going on between Zero and that pureblood – Kaname Kuran, that he had previously missed out on?' Ichiru could not help but wonders.

Zero who sensed someone fixing intense gaze upon him, hurried to scan the area for possible reason and when his eyes landed upon a departing figure from the site with silvery hair strands. An inaudible sigh escaped from him as he shifted his attention back towards his duty on hand.

The silver-haired guardian had initially meant to speak with his twin yesterday evening, but was side-tracked when the Chairman send him out to run an errand and by the time he came back – it was time for his patrolling duty. Hence up until the current point of time to speak, he had yet to get a chance in conversing with his twin.

Ichiru was half-way across the lawn when he found himself being stopped in his path by a day-class student, a female with hazel brown hair.

"You are…?" Ichiru prompted, finding the girl in front of him but somehow he could not seem to put a name to it.

"Wakaba Sayori." The girl responded then, cluing him in on her identity.

"I see…" Ichiru commented with a knowing tone to it. The Wakaba – loyal supporters to the Fujiwara Clan since the olden days. Judging from the solemn expression on the girl's face now, Ichiru had a pretty good idea of her reason for being here.

"I would like to have a word with you, if you don't mind." Wakaba Sayori started, wasting no time in cutting to the main point behind her approach. And then she proceeded to lead her way out of the woods towards her ideal location for the conversation to take place, without caring if the person behind her had made any move to follow in her wake.

"…" Ichiru Kiryuu stared and frowned for a moment, before making a move to follow the girl. Inwardly, he was wondering whether or not the girl was send along to him by his brother to gain information out from him. Imagine his surprise, when the girl – Wakaba Sayori, came outright with the proclamation that she was here by her own free will and that Zero had no idea of her role of being his 'guard' for the moment.

In response to reward her for her honesty, Ichiru had kindly dropped the confirm news of the hunter's association and Fujiwara Haruto conspiracy act into her laps. Then he relates to her also the tale pertaining to Shizuka Hiou wiping out the Kiryuu clan, he believed with the intelligence that the girl had in her. It would just be a matter of time before she pieces everything together to form the complete picture out of the puzzles. Whether or not the girl chooses to inform Zero about it then, would be entirely up to her decision.

"Shiki, it's time to wake." Around 8.a.m. in the morning, Ichijo Takuma strolled into one of the more fanciful bedroom situated within his childhood home and attempted to wake the person sleeping in it.

There was a moment of rustling of the sheets, before he heard the familiar sound of his friend responding. "Shut up, Ichijo-Vice President… It's still way too early to wake…"

The green eyed blond vampire eyes widen in surprise, before he moves to shake the teen and said. "Sorry about this, Shiki… but you have to wake for a while."

"Shut the hell up; Takuma!" Shiki snapped as he grabbed on to the hand shaking him in tight grip.

Silence as Takuma Ichijo took a moment to observe the Shiki Senri in front of him, holding him in a vice-like grip manner. The obvious difference in the orbs colour clued him in on the fact that the Shiki Senri was not the one he was familiar with – if anything, it was the father of his friend in fact. "Where's Shiki?" The green eyed vampire asked then.

"Shiki… Shiki… that's all you ever asked. To answer your question, the Shiki whom you knew was currently deeply asleep within his own body to speak. And although… this might sound a little weird and strange coming from me personally, but don't you think that my son is a cute and adorable being?" Rido Kuran whom was using his son body as a container for his soul, pointed to 'him-self' and asked.

"…" Takuma Ichijo had no idea what to make of that particular statement, and had wisely chosen to maintain his silence over it.

"How are you feeling today, my lord?" The sudden sound of the elder Ichijo speaking up caused the duo that was engage in a staring contest of sort to shift their eyes over to the new comer.

"Alright, it seems like neither of you are going to let me continue my sleep in peace today. Speak your mind then, what brought you over this morning. To answer your question in prior, I've more or less gotten use to this body already." Kuran Rido questioned, as he regarded the elder Ichijo through the irises of his own son.

"I'm just here to inform you, the person whom will be assisting you in the plans of execution on campus had already been sent into the academy safely. Just as you'd expected, he managed to get into the academy without the slightest hint of a problem." Ichijo Asato said, directing his words to the teen seated upon the bed with his utmost respect.

"Oh…you are referring to that kid which Shizuka kept by her side all these time?" Rido mused aloud in Shiki's voice, causing Takuma Ichijo to frown – having not being used to seeing such behaviour from the initial redheaded vampire in prior.

"I'm genuinely convinced that it would not be long now for you to be revived completely; the one and only true heir to the pureblood clan of Kuran; Rido-sama." Ichijo Asato then proclaimed with an expression that crept his grand-son out.

"Now then… shall we hurry along with the rest of the arrangement then? I'm kind of looking forward to meet that particular nephew of mine now." Kuran Rido said with a wry grin visible on his son's features, while Takuma Ichijo whom was trying his best to minimize his existence within the room felt himself breaking out in cold sweat.

Staring at the sight enfolding in front of him, the grand-son of Ichijo Asato was trying his hardest to appear unfazed but it was not an easy task. His heart was thumping wildly against his ribcage, as he feared for his pureblood friend. Part of him was tempted to do something that will somehow in one way or another warned his friend about the current situation at hand, and yet there was nothing he could do with him being stuck under the scrutiny of his grand-father's spies at all times.

'Maybe I should try and slip in some information when we head back to the academy…' Takuma thought inwardly to himself, but he knew even that would not be an easy task. Especially, with Rido Kuran seizing control of his room-mate, Shiki Senri's body as of current to speak and then another through came to him. Was that why his grandfather had told him to group Shiki together when the night-class was first formed?

The reason his grandfather given him then was for the only two off-springs coming from the vampire council's family to be staying together, to look out for one another. Now he wonders whether that was just a particular arrangement to ensure that when the time comes around for this, to guard and to cover up for Kuran Rido who had taken the first chance available to possess Shiki.

"May I inquire the reason for calling me in here at such late timing?" Ichiru Kiryuu asked as he entered the Chairman's residence at 12 mid-nights, looking still very much awake and alert.

"I apologized for calling you in here at this time, but well… as you can see; we have a night-owl here in our midst." The Chairman then pointed to the president of the Moon Dormitory – Kaname Kuran.

"Kiryuu Ichiru-kun, this is the first time we have meet officially, is it not?" Kaname Kuran prompted.

"Indeed, so may I know what have I done to deserve a meeting with the president of the Moon Dormitory? I certainly hoped that this had nothing to do with being a pawn in that game of yours…" Ichiru raised an eyebrow up in question. Of course, there was no response from Kaname as of yet – the pureblood was still taking the chance to observe the younger Kiryuu twins from his perspective.

"What a hassle, you vampires are always so troublesome…" Ichiru muttered to himself, unknowingly his twin – Zero was actually listening in to the conversation somewhere hidden in the shadow.

"Whether or not are you a pawn in my game, I truly believed that you are already standing in the middle of it all. So May I inquired who's your opponent?" Kaname responded, he certainly does not believe Shizuka kept the younger Kiryuu twin around for no reason.

"Even if I do let you in on that little piece of information, there isn't much that you could be doing – isn't it so?" With that, Ichiru pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning against previously and made his way towards the exit. However, before he vanishes from sight – he added.

"I am not a hunter but a mere human, and therefore you are not allowed to harm me in any sense of words. That is precisely why the vampire council had wanted to make use of me…"

"I hardly think you are one to stand around and let them make use of – anyway." Zero entered the scene then, and in the process succeeded in the task of preventing Ichiru's escape.

"Eavesdropping is not a very good habit to have." Ichiru commented dryly as he turned towards his elder twin.

"I would not have to resort to such method, if you had been willing to face me instead of walking away every time I came near you." Zero responded, sarcasm clearly in his tone of voice used.

"Alright then, dear brother of mine – what is it that you intend to ask then?"

"Your motive, rather what are you playing at?" Zero questioned.

"My motive is of course to take revenge… what else could I be playing at then?"

"Seriously…? Do you think me an idiot? You involved the Fujiwara, the hunter's association and the vampire council all into one muddy pool of water and you expect me to believe it's all for the sake of avenging that woman? If avenging that woman is your damn wish, then go ahead and shoot me right now then." Zero snarled glaring heatedly at his twin as he did so.

"…I thought Maria Kurenai has already filled you in on the information?" Ichiru started slow and deliberate, as he observed the facial expression of his elder twin.

"So what if she did?" Zero snapped back in annoyance, inwardly cursing and swearing at Ichiru's current way of speaking – why does it reminded him so painfully of those pureblood vampires that he had ever come across. By that he meant the way of them speaking in riddles, better yet – beating around the bushes just for a simple point. Why can't they just be outright of what they wanted to reveal instead of going one big round for that?

"Then why the hell do you think I am here to avenge Shizuka-sama?! Can't I be trying to complete her quest for revenge on her behalf instead? Well, if it irked you lesser – you can think it this way … thinks of it as though I'm avenging for our parents." Ichiru eventually said, before he turned around and exited from the room – fully, this time.

Kaname Kuran took one look at Zero's expression and knew then – the silver-haired guardian failed to catch on to those subtle hints left behind in his brother's words. The pureblood then told the Chairman that he will be 'borrowing' Zero for the rest of the evening, and then he proceeded to drag the confused ex-human away from the Chairman's place and headed for the Moon Dormitory instead.

Upon the entry into the Moon Dormitory building, Zero finally managed to snap himself back into reality because he was nearly tackled down by the wavy haired boy of six again.

"Akira…why are you running about the place, I thought I specifically told you not to run in here?" Kaname asked, as he reached a hand out to balance the silver-haired hunter.

"Sorry father… but I'm trying to avoid being frozen by uncle Aidou." The boy replied.

"Why on earth is Aidou trying to freeze you then?" Kaname prompted, staring down at the boy with a stern expression on his face.

Akira seemed to have mumbled something under his breath, but it was too incoherent for the pureblood to make any sense of it.

"Come again, Akira – what was that?"

"I accidentally dropped my bowl of macaroni on his manuscript…" The boy said pitifully, as he looked up at his father for help.

"…" Kaname was speechless; this has once again proven the theory of Akira being accident prone… whereas Zero merely sighed aloud upon hearing the reason behind Aidou's anger.

"Zero… kindly bring them upstairs, I'll be coming in at a later point of time. I will need to settle this issue first." Kaname instructed Zero before heading off in search for the fuming blond.

"Boys… come along with me then. Akira, next time do try to be more careful." Zero said as he pulled the boys along with him, up the stairways and heading for the direction of the pureblood's room.

"Aidou, I've heard of the incident already. While Akira is at fault here, I thought I should perhaps remind you again. Never to put anything that you deemed important to you carelessly about the place especially with kids around the area. I'm certain that Akira had already apologized to you, so please stop terrorizing the boy for it. The boy might not have it in him to remind you of his status, but you are not supposed to forget that easily – Akira is a pureblood. Need I remind you again of the repercussion of harming a pureblood?" Kaname started in on the blue-eyed blond before the childlike vampire had the sense to start whining at him of his 'son' actions.

"Yes…Kaname-sama." Aidou Hanabusa responded sullenly, as he shifted his eyes painfully away from that pile of manuscript paper. Now he would have to re-write them all… and he could only hoped that could be done before the editor came by and asked for them.

"Kaname-sama…Ichijo Vice-President just called in, he said he would be coming back tomorrow evening with Shiki in tow." Akatsuki Kain then seized the chance to inform their pureblood leader of the issue.

"I see… did he say anything else?" The pureblood prompted.

"Not exactly, but he did mention about wanting us to be prepared for their arrival…" The wild vampire responded.

"And then…?" Kaname arched an eyebrow up in expectation while he observed the cousin of one Aidou Hanabusa.

"…He sounded slightly 'off' when he said that." Akatsuki eventually said.

"I see… nothing to worry yourself over with, just continue as per normal will do." Kaname told the cousins duo in front of him, as he ventured off towards his own room to mull things over.

Kaname Kuran entered the privacy of his room to be met up by the sight of Zero engaging the set of twins with stories about his own childhood. Having been curious of the hunter's past for some time now, the pureblood did not interrupted nor put a stop to the stories – as he too, settled down on the sofa couch and listened on. The twins though were comfortably snuggled into the middle of his canopy bed as they listened to Zero's childhood story.

"Oh… so Daddy have a twin too?" Akira asked.

"Yes…" Zero smiled fondly down at the cute little boy eyeing him with sparkling lilac eyes, each time he looks into those eyes of Akira – he could find himself melting upon the sight of it.

"So is it like us then?" The boy asked again, with immense curiosity.

"No… not exactly, Ichiru and I … we were identical twins. The two of you are more like a set of fraternal twins." Zero responded, as he looked the two boys over – again before nodding to confirm his thoughts.

"Oh… so does it means that uncle Ichiru is completely similar to Daddy?" Akira piped up, sounding extremely excited to know more about that uncle he had never gotten a chance to know.

"Not exactly… we may be similar in our looks, but our temper and personality are of complete opposite…" Zero eventually said.

"Aa… that's kind of like us then… we too, are what Akane would refer to as 'bi-polar' when she described our personality to outsiders." Subaru then interjected, finally making his presence known and to emphasize on the fact that he had yet to drift off to 'la-la-land' yet.

"So…Daddy, seeing as we are here in this time frame now … would it be possible for us to meet up with uncle Ichiru at least once?" Akira questioned, his eyes emitting off the sparkles of being curious.

"… You might…" Zero murmured, but that was all he was willing to supply to the twins. Inwardly, he was pondering just how it could be considered a miracle that Ichiru and the twins had yet to cross path yet. Akane wise… she had already met Ichiru, seeing as they were both in the same class and all. Funniest thing is – Ichiru had yet to bring up any questions to him pertaining to Akane's existence… why is that so?

Sensing that it was perhaps time to interrupt the father-son bonding session between Zero and the twins, Kaname interjected then.

"Boys… seeing as you'd already gotten your Daddy to tell you two a story for tonight – kindly go to sleep already. Meanwhile, Daddy and I have something to discuss – and we would just be inside the study. I trust that the two of you are able to behave yourself for the time-being, or do I have to get your aunt Seiren in to watch over you two?" Kaname questioned the boys, as he headed up front to join Zero by the side of his bed.

"We will behave ourselves, Father." Subaru responded on behalf for the twins.

"Good." Kaname said, before he steered Zero towards the direction of his private study situated also within the same suite while leaving the boys where they are – on his large canopy bed to lull themselves to bed.

The issue pertaining to Yuuki, the twins and Akane's safety after the return of Ichijo with the possessed Shiki in tow were to address immediately. There was no time for him to lose, as compared to the confused Zero – he had a conjecture as to Ichiru's words. This discussion between Zero and him for tonight is most definitely going to be a long one.

His plans concerning Yuuki would need to be lain out in the open, and he may have to divulge some of his utmost secrets to the silver-haired hunter as well…to ensure that Zero would cooperate with him on this one. He was uncertain whether the silver-haired hunter had any ideas pertaining to Wakaba Sayori being his personal guard or sort… but he truly believed that it would be better if Zero was willing to approach the girl by himself rather than he does it by his own means.

The Fujiwara is one very complicated party to be messing with, but it was obvious that Zero's twin had already involved some of them. Self-governing has always been the case for the Fujiwara, and so if the Fujiwara members did anything wrong – it would have to be one of their own to step forth in dealing with it. No one else could intervene, but Zero probably could. Seeing as he was a direct blood descendant of the Fujiwara through his mother's relationship with the clan.

The discussion between Kaname and Zero took nearly an hour to be done, and by the time they emerged from the private study of the pureblood. The twins were already fast asleep on the bed, cuddling up to one another.

"Wonderful kids to have around, don't you think so?" Kaname commented, glancing at the silver-haired teen from the corner of his eyes.

There was no immediate response from Zero's part, but judging from that look of fondness on the teen's features – Kaname knew the former had agreed with him on this particular issue.

"So…would you care to join them on the bed too?" The pureblood then suggested, only receiving a look of irritation from his silver-haired companion.

"Come on, Zero… you know how much they would have love the idea of waking up in the presence of both their parents. Moreover, nothing could be done with them sleeping between us – isn't that so?" Kaname continue his persuasion act in getting the silver-haired teen to stay the night over in the Moon Dormitory.

"Fine, but you'd better make sure that you don't try anything later if not I have a thousand ways of making you regret your decision to keep me here tonight." Zero finally responded, after taking a moment of silence to consider things over.

To which, Kaname Kuran's response was merely a shrug of his shoulders followed by his making a move to capture those wonderful lips of Zero in a deep kiss – taking advantage of the sheer fact that Zero would not want to risk waking the twins. Therefore in which process successfully safeguards himself from the possibility of being shot by the irritated silver-haired hunter.

Date started: 7/1/2013

Date completed: 8/1/2013


	35. Chapter 34

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: I swear the chapters are getting harder and harder to write … I try desperately to make things interesting in here though… it's a little hard with the entire heavy atmosphere that hung around with the issue of Kuran Rido but I did try, didn't I? Not much KanZe in here, but I insert a little Zero-Subaru scene at the start. This Chapter is more about the arrangements made to 'protect' the kids and Yuuki from the returning Rido… Towards the very last part of this chapter, the twins shall make appearance again.

Chapter 34 – In which the night-class members appeared during the day…

Zero Kiryuu sighed for the umpteen times in a row, as he wondered just how on earth he managed to let the situation escalate down to this particular point of time. He was losing sleep and dawn is breaking soon, school for him would be starting in approximately 3 hours time and yet – he failed to catch any winks at all. The culprit behind his misfortunes was none other than Kaname Kuran, the resident pureblood vampire of the Cross Academy.

Somehow he had caved in to the request brought up by the former last night, asking for him to stay the night over at the Moon Dormitory in the pureblood's room – for the sake of the twins. Well, it was nice to be with the twins and all… but how could he have slept peacefully with a particular set of chocolate orbs eyeing him at all times?! Honestly, he knew Kaname would not be trying anything on him just yet with the twins being in the middle of the bed separating them. Still, the sheer notion of someone staring a hole through him while he attempted to sleep was anything but comfortable. The ultimate result was for him to not sleep at all for the whole night that passed.

"Daddy…?" Subaru Kiryuu blinked blearily, obviously disoriented by the sight of Zero when he had waked for the sake of relieving him-self in the bathroom.

"Yes…Subaru?" Zero asked, good-naturedly.

"…You stayed the night?" The boy then asked, after taking a minute to soak everything up. Unlike Akira, he was not going to be seen asking stupid question like whether or not he was having a hallucination or that he was just plain dreaming of having both his 'parents' with them for the whole night.

"Well… yes." Zero grudgingly admitted his expression a cross between annoyance and resignation.

"Aa…" Subaru made a knowing sound before nodding to him-self, and then remembering his main reason for waking – he started to make a move to get off the bed.

"Toilet breaks?" Zero asked, cocking his head slightly as he regarded the elder twin from his unmoving position.

"Yes." The boy nodded back in response, before padding towards the direction of the attached bathroom quietly – not wanting to risk waking the other two occupants in the room.

Kaname Kuran, the main culprit behind Zero's insomnia for the night before – was currently sleeping peacefully with Akira snuggling up to him for warmth upon the detection of his twin's disappearance act. Zero, meanwhile, took the time whereby Subaru was still in the toilet to observe the sleeping duos. The father and son had looked so peaceful while they slept that Zero could not help but smile at the mere sight of it.

A sigh escaped from his lips upon the thought of the impending return of Ichijo Takuma and Shiki Senri, rather the Shiki Senri who had the misfortune to be possessed by the soul of Kuran Rido. Apparently, that was what had happened during the vacation that ended up with Kaname moody temperament over the past week. The man had finally spit it all out to him last night during their discussion, and then had discussed the arrangements to be done in order to cope with the duos return to the academy with him.

That reminded Zero, he would need to have a talk with Wakaba Sayori soon and then a real 'chat' session with his twin, Ichiru would need to be done. Kaname had already analyzed Ichiru's words to him in prior with him, providing him with the valuable information that Kuran Rido used to be the ex-fiancé of Shizuka Hiou, that woman whom turned him into a vampire. That combined with the words of Maria Kurenai, he had come down to an idea – but he would need to verify it with his twin, whom had obviously knew more on the issue than he did.

"Daddy…?" The sound of Subaru's voice jarred Zero out from his thoughts, as he turned his eyes back upon the boy.

"…It's nothing, I'm just thinking about something. Come now, it's still too early for you to wake. Go back to bed; I'll be here until you fall back asleep." Zero told the boy softly.

Zero stayed for another half an hour or so, only making a move to leave the room once he was certain Subaru had fall back asleep. He took one last look at the three slumbering figures on the bed, before he closes the door to the pureblood's room behind him.

The Moon Dormitory was still bustling with life at this hour of time, but the noises was being kept to its' minimal level. Zero gathered it was mostly out from fear of what Akane might be doing to them, if they disrupted her 'beauty' sleep. After all, it was a common knowledge within these walls that Akane had a nasty temper to reckon with when awakens through other means than the natural way.

"You're leaving already?" Seiren asked, upon sighting Zero's exit from her pureblood leader's room.

"Aa…" Zero nodded back in response, as he headed for the direction of the stairways and let him-self out from the dormitory building.

The academic building of the Cross Academy was engulfed mostly in silence at 5:00 a.m. in the morning, it was too early for the day-class students to be in the building and slightly too late for the night-class students to be still lingering within. Still, there are a few odd ones out – in this case, Wakaba Sayori and Aidou Hanabusa – they are not only in the building itself, but in the same room as well.

"Seriously, you did not ring me up at 3 a.m. in the morning for me to come here and meet you at 5.a.m. just to watch you work on that article for the magazine column – right?" The hazel brown haired girl finally asked, directing her question towards the blue-eyed blond night-class member seated on a table scribbling away madly.

"Eh…? No… not exactly, but can you just hold for another minute – I desperately need to complete this by 6 this morning. The damn editor would be over to retrieve it then… Argh! Damn that boy for ruining my precious work from before." The blue eyed blond vampire proceeded on to rant and rave about Akira's actions while he scribbled madly on the new set of manuscript paper then.

"… I just thought to remind you, the day-class students will have their first class here in this particular class-room at 8 a.m. and I would need to be back in the dorm by 7.a.m. the latest, because that would be when Yuuki woke. I certainly do not require for her to be breathing down my neck for being out during curfew hours!" Wakaba Sayori throws at the blond vampire as she settled herself down on top of the teacher's table, as she eyed the vampire working on his article for a magazine.

"She had no idea, does she?" Aidou then asked.

"Hm…m? No… she has no need to know." Sayori blinked once, then twice before comprehending the blond aristocrat's statement. The blond was asking if Yuuki had known about her allegiance to Zero, and about her knowledge of the true identity of the night-class members.

"What of Kiryuu then?" Aidou prompted again.

"…He had inkling before, but he never thought to verify his ideas with me. Nonetheless, I think this situation would be in for a change soon." Wakaba Sayori responded, easily.

"I see… what about that twin of his then?" The blond aristocrat asked again.

"Ichiru … he knew enough. After all, I did had a talk with him in prior during his third day here in the academy." The girl responded then.

"So did he inform you of his motive for being here then?"

"Aidou-sempai was that a question that you thought to ask by your own means or was that a question that you are asking on behalf of that pureblood leader of yours?" Sayori started then, serious apparent on her features now.

"Was there a difference to it then?"

"A vast one…if the question is from you, sad to say I can't reveal anything to you. However, if the question was one from the Kuran heir, I could only say … double-crossing is the main point here. Keyword is cahoots – between both parties." That was all Wakaba Sayori was willing to reveal before taking her leave from the room, leaving behind the blond aristocrat to mull her words over.

"I see… well then, you may take your leave and join your cousin and Rima out front. Your duty from now onwards was to stick by Yuuki Cross at all times, and to protect her from harm." Kaname Kuran then dismissed the blue-eyed blond from his sight, and directed his gaze towards the figures of the slumbering twins in the middle of his canopy bed.

"Seiren…"

"Yes, my lord?" The female vampire seems to have appeared out from nowhere, but it does not matter in this case. Stealth is a trait of the Seiren, and that is why Kaname would always trust them to do spying job for him.

"Get Ruka Souen and … Risa Miyazaki in here for me." Kaname Kuran then requested.

Ruka Souen was in the midst of getting ready for bed when the guard of her beloved pureblood suddenly pop into view, startling her so much that she nearly gasped in shock.

"Seiren…is anything the matter?" Ruka asked with a frown of concern marring her features.

"Kaname-sama requested for your presence in his room now." That was all the silent vampire had said before vanishing out from sight again.

"…" Ruka stared at the now vacant spot, before pulling a robe of sort over herself as she made her way out to meet the pureblood. There was no way she would be meeting her pureblood leader in just her night-gown, that would be disrespecting the former and if her mother were to know about it. No doubt, she would be 'nagged' again.

Risa Miyazaki was not a noble class vampire by all standards, she was, merely a common class level vampire. However, she had the highest level of standing ground among all that Common Class Level Vampire – and that has something to do with her mother's lineage. Ironically, her mother was a member of the Fujiwara clan.

Originally a human but has the misfortunate of meeting her father by chance in a back alley somewhere out there on the streets when her father was struck with a bloodlust, or rather the scent of her blood lure him to her. A bite later, and viola – her mother was turned only to emit off an aura of the noble class vampire. She had no idea what happened later between both her parents, but she do know something – she was the ultimate outcome of it all.

Unlike the nobles, she was not here by the invitation of one Kaname Kuran. Neither was she here under the orders of the Vampire Council – like that Vice-president of theirs and that male model – Shiki Senri. If anything, she was here by her own free will – merely to get away from that hell-hole that she called a 'home'.

Her siblings off her paternal side was a sore and a pain in the ass for her to be dealing with, then again – she supposed it is only natural. Considering the fact that her mother was the 'third party' here, being a human prior to the waking of the vampire senses after being bitten by her father in a dark alley on the streets – by mere chance. Yes, her father was already attached by the time he met her mother – and so to put it simply, her mother took on the role of a mistress willingly and without questions raised. She was in all its' glory, an illegitimate child of the Miyazaki clan.

Her family members from the Miyazaki clan would probably be snorting in response to the so-called ideals of the 'co-existence' between humans and vampires alike, but she honestly believed that it could be done. Since her mother's family was one of such combination… and so when she first heard of the night-class being set up in the Cross Academy – she had all but packed up and departed from home soon after.

One would label her actions as the typical 'run away from home' but once again, with her mother dead now who would have given it too much a thought. She spend her vacation always within the halls of the Fujiwara vampire's branch of the family, so long they don't find it a hassle to be housing her on regular basis – she had no intention to move anytime soon.

"Risa Miyazaki, Kaname-sama had requested for your presence in his room."

The sentence jolted the female common class vampire to spring up in bed on auto-gear, and when she turned towards the side where she had heard the voice coming from – she found herself staring at the empty air.

"…" Risa ran a hand down her shoulder-length curl-like hair and sighed aloud in response. Glancing to the side of her, she found her room-mate to be sleeping soundly like the 'dead'. Either Seiren was too good in masking her presence, or her room-mate was just too dense to detect intruder in their room.

Swinging her feet onto the floor, Risa Miyazaki hurried to get herself presentable for the meeting with the pureblood leader of the academy as she wondered what could be the reason behind the meeting. Certainly, she had not done anything that go against the rules sets in place by the former – right?

A scream of 'No' tore out from Yuuki's throat as she sprang upright in bed heaving and panting for breath, the fully-dressed room-mate of hers' – Wakaba Sayori frowned down at her with concern.

"Yuuki…? Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I… just had a nightmare that's all…" The female guardian responded, sounding a little shaky for Sayori's liking.

"Really… Yori, I'm fine… just having a tremendous headache that is all." Yuuki said, sending a shaky smile towards the hazel-brown haired girl.

"Well… if you are sure." Sayori had dropped the issue then, it was obvious that whatever was plaguing the girl in the night-mare – the girl was adamant of not sharing any of it to her.

Yuuki followed behind her friend heading for the dormitory canteen to get breakfast in a distracted manner, and despite the breakfast serving being small – with just two slice of French toast combined with egg and bacon, she had failed to get any appetite and barely eaten any mouthful before pushing the whole dish aside and away from her sight.

"Yuuki… are you certain that you are fine? You don't even have an appetite, and this is unlike you." Wakaba Sayori prompted, reaching a hand out to feel the girl's forehead for any sign of temperature as she said so.

"Yori…I'm fine really, probably just the lack of sleep finally getting down to me." The girl hurried to assure, trying to get away from her friend's mothering actions.

"Well then… we shall observe the rest of the day to come, and let's see if your appetite returns in time for lunch. I'm certain that you do not wish to get Kiryuu-kun into one of his worrying mood for you, right?" Sayori directed her words to her friend with intent.

Yuuki nodded enthusiastically to Sayori's words, if there is anyone she would not like to have fussing over her condition – it would be Zero. Ever since the future trio comes around, that silver-haired friend of hers… she swears was getting worst at those nagging sessions. Sometimes, she would find herself wondering if this was how it feels for normal kids to be nagged by their mothers…

Stepping out from the girls' dormitory behind her friend, she found Zero standing outside waiting for them already.

"Aa… sorry, I'm late." Yuuki found herself repeating her usual greeting to the silver-haired teen only to get a roll of his eyes back in response.

"Quite the contrary, you are kind of on-time today – Yuuki." Zero had then responded.

"Eh…?" Yuuki turned her eyes onto her friend, whom only nodded to her from the corner of her eyes.

"Wow… look at that, isn't those members from the night-class?! How rare of them to be coming out during the day…" Some girls crowding about the corner suddenly stopped in the midst of their gossiping acts, and commented while staring at the group approaching the Sun Dormitory building in awe instead.

"…" Zero Kiryuu eyed the four vampires making their way over to join them, but said nothing. A rare thing for him, but seeing as this was exactly what was being agreed between Kaname and him during last night's discussion. He was not going to comment on any of it, today.

"Good morning to you, Yuuki-sama. We are hereby under the orders of Kaname-sama to guard and protect you for the rest of the day, to follow." Aidou Hanabusa took the lead to greet Yuuki, the vampire trio behind him follow his actions in bowing towards Yuuki with minimal level of respect.

"Eh…!" Yuuki's eyes widen in shock then, before she voiced her doubts across – with a simply utter of the word 'Why?'

"That we had no idea of – we acted merely on the words given by Kanama-sama. If he said that we were to protect and guarded you against dangers, then that is all we are going to do here." Aidou Hanabusa responded in solemnity, unlike the times that he would be seen fooling around in the presence of the day-class students.

"…" Yuuki was floored by the feeling of astonishment, and found her-self having trouble reacting to it all – together. Without intention to, she found her eyes sliding over to where Zero was standing – hoping to get some form of 'support' or help in dealing with such happenings. Unfortunately, Zero was not reacting in the manner she had hoped – and instead had even agreed with the night-class members actions by maintaining his silence on the issue.

"Yuuki, you go on ahead for class. There's something I need to speak with Wakaba about." Then Zero signaled for the lot of vampires to escort Yuuki to the classroom, whereas he beckoned for the hazel brown haired girl to join him for a 'detouring' journey to class.

Meanwhile, back in the Moon Dormitory building – Kaname had left specific instructions for Ruka Souen and Risa Miyazaki to be guarding the boys at all times. Although he had not specify the main reasons behind why the boys should be guarded, he placed extra emphasis on the sheer fact that neither of the boys were to be left alone with Shiki Senri and Takuma Ichijo upon their return from the prolonged period of vacation.

Even if the boys were to venture out from the Moon Dormitory in the board daylight in search for Zero, the two of them were to follow the twins – no matter how they detested the idea of heading out into the sunlight during the day.

His idea of picking Ruka Souen to guard the twins – especially Akira was quite understandable. First and foremost, the female vampire would never want to be guarding Yuuki and that was why he sends out Touya Rima, Aidou and Akatsuki together with another common class vampire for that task. Sending out four of his subordinate to guard Yuuki, was also to serve as a precaution measures – like Zero did mention, Yuuki had a knack of landing herself in trouble without knowing. For Zero, Kaname wasn't too worried – because Zero knew how to take care of him-self.

Moreover, Wakaba Sayori would be there to help when the need arises and while the presence of Ichiru Kiryuu remained a factor of uncertainty. That was the least of his concerns now, at least it was obvious with the subtle hints dropped by that younger twin of Zero – the opponent that the former had in mind to go up against was one Rido Kuran. Therefore, there was no need to worry about Ichiru in the long run – because they shared the same ultimate goal.

And that was exactly why he had been willing to leave the younger twin to the capable hands of his silver-haired lover.

Yes, lover is the term he was labeling the silver-haired hunter now and somehow he enjoyed the idea of it. Although, Zero had yet to really let the guards down around him but at least the hostility between them were gone. Topping it off, the silver-haired teen's effort of pushing him away seemed to have dropped to the minimal level these days too. Sure, Zero is still in denial and has yet to make any confession or sort towards him. Nonetheless, he knew the former was slowly coming around to the idea of it.

He had after all, bitten and marked Zero easily enough without any form of resistance from the teen. Then again, it could have been the fact that the teen was too engrossed in the task of sucking him dry back then to give much thought on the issue. Still, it remained a fact that he was not shot after the deed was being done.

In addition to it, Zero failed to make any attempt in stopping him from instigating any intimate acts – the only exception being the deed that would complete their bond to one another. That was the only thing Zero had refused his advance, going to the extent of threatening bodily harm with the idea of using the 'Bloody Rose' on him.

The sheer memory of how Zero had blushed like a ripe tomato back then brought a ghostly smile to his lips, something wonderful to distract him from his troubling mind for a split second before turning his attention back to the arrangement made in order to 'welcome' the return of Takuma and the now possessed Shiki Senri.

His picking of Risa Miyazaki to aid Ruka in the task of guarding the twins was no coincidence. Kaname had simply deemed it more suitable to pick Risa; the former ability is the strongest and highest among the Common Class Level. Moreover, Risa Miyazaki is the only common class vampires around that Akira was willing to get chummy around with. That alone, was claiming to say something – isn't it?

Akira's chumminess would never be subjected to anyone who he deemed as a stranger – saved that one time with Yagari Touga.

The twins ever since their arrival from the future had generally kept their distances with the common class vampires, the only exception had been the case with Risa Miyazaki. The twins practically adore her, why though – he had no idea. Akane seemed to know the reason behind it but was unwilling to reveal any of it…merely commenting that it would not be any more fun if too much information was being released to them pertaining to the future.

Ichiru Kiryuu entered the classroom under the scrutiny eyes of the four vampires guarding the classroom, if he was surprised – he certainly did not show any of it. For a while, he wondered if the guards being send was an order issue by the Kuran heir to guard his twin – but as soon as the idea planted itself in his mind, he discarded the notion soon after.

Regardless of how 'valuable' his twin had been to the Kuran heir, Zero would never allow that many vampires to be guarding him like some kind of bodyguard. However, his twin was awfully subdued under this particular situation and at this point of time – then it would mean that the guards were not entirely meant to guard him. In which case, the next logical thought would be for the sake of Yuuki Cross – the female guardian.

Ichiru distinctively recalled Shizuka Hiou commenting to him that the blood of the female guardian was quite alluring and tempting to her, that at times she would felt the itch to taste the blood of the girl. That had been why she brought up the condition of giving her blood willingly to Zero in exchange for a taste of Yuuki Cross, a bait and lure to get Zero out to meet her – but Ichiru believed Shizuka had the very intention in mind to taste Yuuki's blood for her-self when the suggestion was first made.

"Aa...what a troublesome girl to be dealing with..." Ichiru mumbled to him-self under his breath, before he took a seat at his designated area.

A glance to his right found him staring at a sandy-haired girl – Akane Kiryuu, which reminded him of his long-overdue 'confrontation' with his twin over the girl's existence. The girl looks too alike with his dead mother in all sense differing only in the hair color, and then the family name of 'Kiryuu'. Unless he had some long-lost sister hidden away somewhere which he was certain that did not exist prior to his parents' death, Zero has one hell of an explanation to do when he finally got it in him to have that so-called civil talk with that twin of his.

Zero Kiryuu strolled into the class with Wakaba Sayori, approximately 5 minutes before the scheduled arrival of their homeroom teacher. He settled himself down right next to Akane's position, and was greeted by a nod from the sandy-haired girl. Sayori, meanwhile, was subjected to a number of questions from the curious female guardian.

"Yuuki… I'll tell you later, not now. The teacher's coming." Wakaba Sayori throws back at her friend, as she started to get ready for the lesson to come.

"So… I gathered some form of agreement has been reached between the two of you?" Akane asked shuffling her gaze between Zero and the hazel-haired girl seated to their front with Yuuki.

"I told her to place her own safety as the utmost importance level, and then to guard the twins instead." Zero responded in a whispering manner, knowing for certain that with Akane's keen sense of hearing – she would have no problem catching wind of it all.

For Wakaba Sayori, she was immensely grateful to be hearing the voice of Aidou Hanabusa when lunch hour came by. The blond bringing a message from the pureblood leader of the night-class pertaining to his seeking the presence of both Yuuki and Zero with him immediately was a 'god-sent' for Sayori. She had after all been cracking her mind for possible reasons to feed the nosy girl about the reason why Zero Kiryuu had wanted to speak with her in private, and the words of Aidou Hanabusa was the exact distraction which she required at that moment of time.

Wakaba Sayori nearly sends a flying kiss towards the blond then, but luckily she had enough sense not to do it. Taking opportunity for the chance to flee, Wakaba Sayori hurried to hide her-self within the group of people coming out from the next class heading for lunch as she deserted Yuuki with no apparent guilt by leaving her to the care of the four night-class members as well as Kiryuu Zero.

Ichiru Kiryuu felt his eyebrow twitching in response when he witnessed the approaching figure of one Wakaba Sayori, and then he asked.

"Why are you here?"

"This is a public area, so you can't really stop me from coming here for lunch – can you?" Sayori shot back, her tone even.

"Are you uncle Ichiru?" The sudden sound of a kid calling out from behind him startled the duos and causing them to snap their eyes to the back, in an instant.

"…" Ichiru Kiryuu stared at the mini-Kaname who was lying down on the grass patch on the stomach, and looking up at him with sparkling lilac eyes – not knowing for certain how to react.

"Idiot…! Of course he is our uncle Ichiru, Daddy did says they are identical – didn't he?" Subaru's voice then sounded from the other side of the tree.

Wakaba Sayori felt like face-palming herself, why exactly are the twins here? Judging from the expression on Ichiru, he obviously had no idea of the twins' existence just yet. Ichiru Kiryuu, meanwhile, had really no idea what to make out of the situation at hand. The silver-haired boy he had seen before, briefly by chance during an encounter of Shizuka and his twin some-time ago. The mini-Kaname though… he had yet to get a glimpse of until now.

The Kuran-heir look-alike combined with his family's lilac eyes, and then the Silver-haired child with chocolate eyes … if he still had yet to fathom out the identity of that 'Daddy' that the two boys were yapping on about, he could jolly well shoot himself and be done with it.

As for the other prospective parent for the boys, one look behind them solved the problem – the distinctive white uniforms on the two females said it all. That, and also how that other boy had resembled a certain pureblood vampire by the name of Kaname Kuran – had also successfully clued him in on the identity of the other parent.

"…Wakaba, would you help me in passing a message over to that brother of mine?" Ichiru started then, massaging the top of his temples while he sends the girl initially seated beside him on an errand to seek his elder twin out.

Date started: 8/1/2013

Date completed: 9/1/2013


	36. Chapter 35

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: An entire chapter pertaining to the Kiryuu twins and Kuran-Kiryuu twins…I hope it's enough to curb those twins power going around XD

Chapter 35 – In which Ichiru meet his nephews officially…

"This is where I shall take my leave." Aidou Hanabusa said, as soon as he led both Zero Kiryuu and Yuuki Cross to the back garden lawn of the Academy where the pureblood had taken the liberty to arrange for a picnic environment.

"…" Zero stared at the lunch sets sitting quietly atop of the picnic mat, and then to the pureblood that looked pretty much at ease despite it being 12 noon during a spring season. Yuuki, on the other hand, had her mouth opened and closed in shock.

Zero knew, the girl had dozens of questions swirling around in that mind of hers' and he had had no intention of addressing them at all. In which case, he decided to leave it all up to Kaname Kuran to explain – since he was the one whom deemed it necessary to send out four of the night-class students to Yuuki as potential 'bodyguards'.

"Good afternoon, Yuuki." The pureblood greeted before glancing over to where Zero had stood with a nod.

"…" Yuuki was silent; she was debating whether to start questioning the man of his reasons behind sending out the night-class members to act as her bodyguard or to inquire about the man's sudden decision to venture out here in the broad daylight for a picnic.

"Zero, would you care to join us for lunch?" Kaname allowed Yuuki sometime to gather her thoughts together, as he shifted his glance towards where Zero had stood unmoving in that same position as before.

"No need for that, your decision of deciding to venture out here in the middle of the day would no doubt be causing some uproar among the day-class girls. I will be eating outside and aiding Aidou in the task of fending them off for you – and I certainly hoped that you will enjoy this wonderful picnic with Yuuki alone." Zero throws back at the pureblood as he made a grab for his share of lunch set from the picnic mat, before stalking out of the place leaving behind the duos to stare.

"…" Kaname and Yuuki stared after the departing figure of Zero Kiryuu, both in deep thoughts. The pureblood was wondering why exactly Zero fleeing the site with such rapid footsteps, was it because he was uncomfortable with the idea of eating outdoors. Yuuki on the other hand was thinking that perhaps Zero is just feeling uncomfortable with the idea of having lunch together with Kaname Kuran.

When in actual fact, Zero was indeed uncomfortable with the arrangement. He could easily be seen having lunch with Yuuki and her friend outdoor, if the need arises. However, with Kaname … under the broad daylight – it just seems odd for him to stomach the idea. He was so used to seeing that guy at night, that the sheer idea of meeting him out here in the middle of the day – and when he was not on one of his guardian's duty was simply just weird for him. That was why he rather leave Yuuki with the pureblood, while he took his lunch out here fending off fan-girls while having some kind of random chat session with the equally bored Aidou Hanabusa instead.

"There you are, the twins and your brother… they've finally crossed path." Wakaba Sayori throws out to the stoic silver-haired guardian upon her finally reaching to a stop in front of him.

"…By chance or …?" Zero questioned, he would not put it across Akira to attempt something like that on purpose.

"I hardly think it would be considered a meeting by chance, seeing as your youngest first words upon sighting Ichiru – was 'are you uncle Ichiru?'" Sayori commented dryly as she responded to the teen's query.

"I see… and you are here because?"

"Ichiru send me over with a message for you – he says you have one hell of an explanation to do after you get your-self there." Sayori responded, matter-of-factly.

"…Aidou, kindly fill your leader in on the information after he emerged from within. I'm going off to settle the issue first." Zero throws towards the blond aristocrat before heading towards where Wakaba Sayori was last seen coming from.

In the meantime, back at where Ichiru and the twins were – an odd silence had hung over them. The two boys of six were taking this chance to observe their 'uncle Ichiru' from all possible angles, especially Akira whom had taken on the approaching of circling the teen now to speak. Subaru though was merely eyeing his 'Daddy' little brother from top to bottom; and then from bottom to top again.

That was apparently the sight that met Zero's eyes when he finally reached the place where Sayori had informed him that Ichiru was having his lunch on a daily basis – since his transfer into the academy, of course.

"Akira, Subaru…what did I tell you two about wandering about the school during the day?" Zero prompted as soon as he managed to suppress his urge to laugh at the twins' actions of subjecting Ichiru to one of their X-ray inspection check and also of the nonplussed expression upon his very own twin's features.

"Ah… it's Daddy!" Upon hearing the voice of Zero, Akira had all but dropped his task of circling Ichiru and went barreling towards the more familiar silver-haired figure with a bright and cheerful smile on his face.

"Daddy...I apologized for not stopping Akira when I should have done so." Subaru responded then, answering Zero's previous inquiry as he too joined his brother in the task of heading towards the silver-haired guardian. The only difference is that he did not make an attempt to tackle Zero like his twin had.

Ichiru Kiryuu observed in silence as his elder twin skillfully gathered the wavy-haired boy up in his arms with no hesitation, and judging from the smile upon Zero's lips when the former landed his gaze upon the two boys – his elder twin was not at all irked by the sheer fact that they were vampires in nature. And then he found himself wondering just what on earth had happened to his twin in order to create such a vast difference in the other's opinion towards the vampires in general.

"Alright, boys – behave your-selves! If not, I'll be sending the both of you off to your 'Father'." Zero warned then, directing his words mainly towards Akira rather than Subaru.

"Okay… Daddy…" Akira, who had been placed back down onto the ground by Zero – nodded in response after his suggestion of playing tag out here was revoked by the silver-haired teen.

"Ichiru…I bet you probably had dozens of questions pertaining to their existence, but this is not a topic meant for discussion out here. Perhaps, you could drop by the Chairman's residence later tonight for dinner and then I'll explain everything. After which, we will be having that long over due talk between us, pertaining to everything else that is happening recently." Zero then shifted his attention towards his twin, and said.

"Now boys, the afternoon classes are starting soon – the two of you should not be out here in the first place. Hurry along and get back to the Moon Dormitory, or do I have to get your 'Father' over to speak with you two on this particular issue?" Zero prompted, and then Akira started to pull his favorite stunt of all times.

Akira started to direct those pitiful puppy eyes look of his, as he stared up at Zero and said. "Daddy, can we stay out here and play? We have been staying within the Moon Dormitory all the time, and it's getting a little bored for us now…"

"…" Zero slide his gaze towards where the two vampire guards of the boys had stood under the shady trees nearby, and sighed aloud in response.

"I don't know, the sun might not have been a problem for you two to be dealing with… but I'm sure that they don't appeal to your two aunts over there watching the two of you today. How about this…goes and visits your Grandpa Cross for the day? I'm sure he would enjoy the distraction off his work for today." Zero eventually suggested, and upon the simultaneous nods received from the two boys heaved a sigh of relief.

"Risa… keep an eye out on them; do not let the Chairman feed them any candies or chocolates. They are supposed to be sticking to their diet plan, and if the Chairman had any opinions pertaining to that diet plan of the kids – tell him to bring the issue up to me later on in time. I shall personally see to it." Zero then directed his next words towards Risa Miyazaki, one of the guard assigned to keep an eye out on the twins by the pureblood – no doubt.

"Yes, Zero-sama…" The response from Risa came soon after, and successfully gaining the attention of several sets of surprising stares from the onlookers.

Ruka Souen was staring at the girl in shock; the twins were grinning from ear to ear – obviously they knew something which the rest of the night-class members had no idea of. Wakaba Sayori held a hand to her head shaking her head while she sighed aloud in response, and Ichiru Kiryuu stared for a second before coughing several times to get rid of the urge to laugh aloud at the look on his twin's face.

"…Risa, for the last time I am telling you – drop the 'sama' thing. This is Cross Academy, not the compound of any Fujiwara estates out there – there is no need for you to be so formal with me." Zero then responded, after he rolled his eyes in exasperation to the girl's way of addressing him.

"…Yes, Zero-sama…" Risa responded again, in a tone that was devoid of all emotions – causing Zero to roll his eyes yet again in response.

"You know what; forget what I'd say…" Zero muttered before turning on his heels to leave the place, rapidly eager to get away from it all.

"Miyazaki, you are doing it on purpose – aren't you?" Wakaba Sayori then spoke up, directing her question towards the poker-faced vampire standing together with the still stunned figure of Ruka Souen.

"Well… who knows?" Risa Miyazaki then shrugged, but the mild mirth reflecting in those brown eyes of hers speak volumes.

Once Ichiru and Sayori vanishes from sight, heading back to where they should be – the classroom for class. The twins on the mental count of five broke into fits of laughter, how they had missed the sight of their Aunt Risa sending their beloved 'Daddy' into the state of exasperation with just a mere addressing term of a 'sama' in her speech.

"Aww… poor Akane, she missed out on all that." Akira commented after he put a stop to his laughter fits.

"Nah… I think she would prefer the sight of Uncle Takuma addressing our beloved 'Daddy' as such just for the sake of annoying him, than to see Aunt Risa doing it. After all, it is only right for Aunt Risa to be addressing Daddy as such – it's an unwritten rule since our Daddy's position within the Fujiwara clan did surpass hers. However, it was completely unnecessary for Uncle Takuma to be calling him that too." Subaru responded, off-handedly.

"And what of Asami's reasoning then?" Akira piped up, again after Subaru's words.

"…That is just her taking a page out from her parents' antics – and purposely saying it to annoy our Daddy-dearest! Although the chance of hearing her say that was rather slim since we don't all get to meet that often, but personally – I think she enjoyed calling Akane's name with the term 'sama' more than she did with our Daddy."

"Ha! Quite true, the look on Akane's face every time after that was so priceless. She ever mentioned once during vacation – that her classmates and co-worker for the guardian's duty was always staring at her in a strange manner when Asami called her 'Akane-sama' in public."

"Exactly, and somehow somewhere along that line – students of the day-class ended up addressing her as such too. It ticked her off all the time, and thus ended up with her sporting a reputation that succeeded our Daddy's legacy on campus."

Soon, the twins chattering are all pertaining to the misfortune of their elder sibling – one Akane Kiryuu, and totally forgetting about the existence of their Aunt Ruka and Aunt Risa whom are following them from behind – guarding them as they made their way to the Chairman's office in search for the school's owner.

6. p.m. on the dot, following the end of Zero's guardian duty for the day – he entered the premises of the Chairman's residence with a certain pureblood by the name of Kaname Kuran and his future adopted daughter – Akane Kiryuu in tow.

The twins together with their two female guards were already in the house of the Chairman by that point of time. Ichiru would be arriving around 7.p.m. for dinner, and he had about an hour to get things ready.

"Chairman, how's Yuuki?" Zero had asked, upon catching sight of his foster father emerging from the doorway of Yuuki's room.

"Sleeping now…" Kaien Cross answered, a worrying frown marring his features.

"I see… I'll go in and take a peek later, but for now… I'll get the dinner ready. Until then, Kaname and Akane can made them-selves useful by entertaining the twins. You, on the other hand, are going to settle that pile of documents waiting for your attention – after your work for the afternoon was being disrupted by the twins' entrance to your office to wreck havoc." Zero commented dryly then, as he turned and made his way inside the kitchen of the house.

The sight of the pink flowery apron hung within the kitchen caused Zero's eyebrow to twitch slightly with annoyance, as he wondered where on earth that plain white apron that he had gotten used to using was. Realizing that there was simply no time for him to go in search for that apron, he would just have to make do with what he have on hand for today… he made a grab for that offending piece of garment with dread and simply just pull it over the top of his uniform while trying his hardest to ignore those unmoving stares of a certain Kuran from behind.

Kaname Kuran watched as the silver-haired teen busied himself in the kitchen with the task of getting dinner ready, somehow that pink flowery apron on the teen had unintentionally spurred him into thinking Zero going about the task like how a typical 'wife' should be. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he marveled at the sheer thought of it, though if the silver-haired hunter had any inkling pertaining to his current thoughts – he would be in trouble, no doubt on that.

"Hm…m… what a wonderful smell, Zero-chan… are we perhaps having beef stew for tonight?" Kaien Cross, having just completed the last of the stamping procedure on the pile of documents in his Study emerged from within then.

"Yes, and we are having Mango Gazpacho for dessert later." Zero announced in a deadpanned manner.

Zero had taken great measures in researching on low sugar intake menu for the sake of the twins, considering just how much those boys of his had adored the idea of having desserts after meals. The pitiful look on Akira always after he revoked the kid's request to have a taste of either the chocolate cheese cake of milk pudding after meals, always caused his heart to clench at the sight of it.

Still, it would not do for Akira to continue on with those unhealthy eating habits and so he had remained firm in his decision to continue with that diet plan of his future self had deemed necessary for the boy to have. Only, he had insisted upon Subaru to follow that diet plan for Akira as well – if only to tone down the level of unhappiness radiating off the younger boy.

"Really, Daddy…?! We get to have dessert later?!" Akira immediately brighten up with a smile, he missed the chance of getting to eat desserts after meals ever since the diet plan was put into action.

"Yes, Akira – you get to have dessert after tonight's dinner but you are only entitled to 1 serving, no more than that." Zero told the boy in a firm-like manner, but Akira hardly paid any attention to it – he was on cloud nine now that he nodded to Zero's words without really understanding what was being said anyway.

"Oh boy… he sure is going to start another episode of whiny acts later when Daddy forbids him to get another serving of the dessert…" Subaru muttered under his breath, while he kept his eyes on his little brother's dance of happiness as of current.

That was exactly what Ichiru Kiryuu stumbled upon, the sight of one very excited Akira Kuran bouncing up to him and tackle him down in the process just to inform him of the fact that – dessert would be served today after meal.

"Akira, kindly gets yourself off your uncle Ichiru right now!" Zero interjected from his position just outside of the kitchen, before sending a look over at Subaru to grab Akira off the poor Ichiru whom had the misfortunate fate of being tackled over by the other boy of six.

"I apologized for the delay, but kindly make your-self comfortable out there. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes time, and I will explain things to you – then." Zero throws at his own twin, before heading back to the kitchen to tend to the readying soup of the day.

"Chairman Cross, I would appreciate if you could kindly make your-self useful in here or you can jolly well get the hell out from the kitchen if you are not going to help set the table or anything!" Zero gritted out with irritation, when the man who was supposed to be his foster parent was behaving like a bloody five year old kid staring at the dessert with sparkling eyes.

"Daddy, is there anything that we could be doing to help?" Subaru then asked, standing in the kitchen door-way. He too, was eager for the dinner to start – but unlike Akira, his attention was not solely centered upon the dessert. Beef stew was something he really missed having, not that he was boasting or anything but he truly believed that his 'Daddy' made the most delicious beef stew ever in the world.

"Yes, my dear Subaru… perhaps you can help to show your Grandpa Cross how exactly does the task of setting up the table entails." Zero commented dryly as he handed the boy the exact number of cutlery utensils required for a table of nine.

Albeit it is a little cramped for that rectangular shape of the dining table which Chairman Cross had in his possession, still it would simply have to do for now. Since, the Chairman don't usually have that much guests around for dinner – and this is the only time so many people had showed up for it. Inwardly, Zero was thankful that Yuuki was fast asleep in her room and would be having her dinner probably later on in the night otherwise the table would gets even more cramped to say.

The girl had obviously fainted during the picnic lunch period when one of her 'episodes' struck in the middle of that lunch she was having in the company of one Kaname Kuran then, and following which the pureblood had all but send her off to the Chairman it would seems. The sudden hands that snaked around his waist caused the silver-haired guardian to startle and freeze in mid-actions for a minute, before gradually relaxing his stance.

"Kaname, could you please stop doing that? I'm in the process of making dinner right now." Zero gritted aloud from frustration, the pureblood's current action of hugging him from behind is a hindrance to his cooking procedure.

"I didn't know you wear pink." Kaname Kuran said as he let go of Zero's waist, and leaned his back against the kitchen counter top instead.

"I don't." The silver-haired guardian throws back in response.

"Oh…?" The pureblood then raised an eyebrow up in question, as he allowed his eyes to look specifically at the pink apron Zero was now spotting on.

"…This belongs to the Chairman, and occasionally Yuuki wears it. Mine is supposed to be a plain white apron that somehow had just miraculously went missing earlier on. I can very much assure you, wearing a pink apron is never my idea to begin with." Zero responded, spitting out the last sentence with venom.

To which, Kaname merely shrugged – refrained from his initial comment to say that Zero looks good in the pink apron. It is one thing to amuse himself with the thought of it, and totally another to admit that to the silver-haired teen. Moreover, Zero was probably irked by the sheer fact that he had to use that offending pink apron for today and if he were to make any further comments to it… there is a high chance of him being kicked out of the kitchen by the irate hunter.

"Yuuki… her episodes are getting worst, isn't it?" Zero suddenly brought up the issue of Yuuki for discussion, drawing Kaname out from his thoughts.

"Aa…it would not have escalated down to this point at such fast a speed if she did not try and force herself to remember those emptied years of her childhood." Kaname said then, pinching the bridge of his nose in weariness as he said so.

"When do you intend to wake her up?" Zero asked next, stirring the pot of stew on the stove as he questioned.

"Soon…" Kaname responded vaguely, and Zero did not press any further. It was obvious from the way Kaname was responding to his queries that the man was trying to delay the matter, deciding to simply leave the issue aside and concentrated on getting dinner ready – Zero dropped the questioning session altogether.

Dinner of nine is a peaceful event, despite the large number of participants in it. A quick glance around the table occupants had Ichiru sweat-dropping at the sheer sight, more than half of the people seated here are vampires in nature. Saved from the Chairman and himself, though Akane – he was still uncertain as of current.

"Okay, boys… stop your incessant chattering and eat your food first." Zero ordered, and both boys immediately stopped their debates on whether to play chess or play monopoly later on after dinner.

Ichiru watched amazed at how his elder twin had handled the two kids easily, and without the need to scowl at them too.

"Yes… Ichiru…?" Zero finally shifted his glance towards his daze-like mirror image and prompted, after the twins had settled down in peace for dinner to take place.

"I would think an introduction between us all and an explanation is in need, don't you think so?" Ichiru said, sarcasm lacing his tone while he addressed his elder twin.

"…" Zero started to shift a little uncomfortably under his own twin's gaze of intensity, while Ichiru's animosity towards the vampires are nothing like his master – seeing as how Ichiru had been willing to serve that woman that turned him against his wish. The nature of his future kids being vampires should not be a problem for Ichiru to deal with, it is the awkwardness of revealing the other prospective parent that kind of had Zero shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Gees… honestly, how bad could it be? Zero, you'd survived the wrath of your master – and this is just your twin we are talking about here? You know the one who had willingly served under the wing of Shizuka Hiou – a pureblood? So just go ahead and spit it out already." Akane piped up, having had enough of the Kiryuu twins engaging one another in a staring contest and yet nothing had been addressed just yet.

"How about you take the honor to do the introduction and explanation on behalf of Zero then…Akane-san?" Ichiru started, an explanation and introduction is in order and if his twin was not willing to reveal anything to him… he supposed he would just have to get it out from someone else who knew.

"…" Akane flicked her glance over to the other silver-haired teen at the table, and upon the look of relief that wormed itself into those lilac eyes of his – Akane resigned herself to the idea of handling the explanation again.

"I see you didn't bring your katana along, which is a good thing I supposed." Akane muttered as she shifted her eyes back to the younger Kiryuu twins, inwardly she was wondering why she had to open her big mouth and land herself in such an undesirable position again.

Ichiru refrained from throwing any remarks back towards his mother look-alike, and simply crossed his arms over his chest and waited patiently for the explanation to come.

"I'm too lazy to explain everything; I'm just going to summarize it all. I am sure with your knowledge; you would still be able to catch on fast enough. To put it across simply, we are from the future. By that – it actually meant the two boys and me. I supposed I do not have to define the term 'Future' because the meaning of it should be well-known to every one of us seated down here. How did it happen? This one is easy enough, the 'Time-Vortex' was used and that was how we ended up here in this point of the past.

Reason behind their calling Zero 'Daddy' – that is because; he is to be their 'Daddy' in future. The identity of the other parent - that should be obvious enough to tell without having me to drop it on you. Pertaining to the reason how those two over there ended up having kids – that is not my position to answer, but I can give you a clue. If you have the chance to… look it up in the ancient book of spells in the Hiou's family library. I am certain there's a copy in each and every pureblood's family library to date."

"I see… and the introduction?" Ichiru prompted then, while he mull over the information received. It was a clipped and short version of the explanation but he didn't really require all that details. He only wanted to know how they come about to existence, and the time vortex addressed that already.

"I'll kick the ball rolling first; I am Akane Kiryuu in all its essence. No, I am not a direct product of those two over there – merely an adopted child. My mother's a member of the Fujiwara clan, related distantly with Yukari-san. Basically, after your twin and Kaname-sama adopted me – my surname was changed to Kiryuu." With that said, Akane flicked her glance over to Subaru signaling for the elder twin to start introducing himself.

"Subaru Kiryuu…I'm the elder twin." The boy introduced himself, in a flat-like tone of voice.

"I'm the youngest…Akira Kuran is my name." The little wavy haired boy with lilac eyes flashed a charming smile towards Ichiru's direction before turning his attention back to the beef stew he was feeding himself.

The rest of the dinner progressed on uneventfully, saved the whining episode from Akira when he was reminded to have only one serving of the dessert being served. However, a glare from Zero had successfully stop the boy in his mid-whine and poor Ichiru ended up being on the suffering end to Akira's incessant questioning sessions. And all of those questions asked were pertaining to the childhood embarrassing moments for Ichiru, which the twins had gotten to hear about from Zero several nights ago as a bedtime story.

"…I will have you know – your 'Daddy-dearest' down there was still wetting his pants at five years old." Ichiru then said as he smiled charmingly towards his elder twin, with every intention to get back at his twin for using his embarrassing moments to entertain the two kids before.

"Ichiru…!" Zero was aghast by his twins' words and upon the mild mirth reflected in a particular pair of chocolate eyes boring into his lilac ones – he fled the living room and proceeded to hide himself within the kitchen doing dishes instead.

In the meantime, the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory was on his way back to the academy with a heavy heart. With him, brought along a coffin containing the real body of Kuran Rido and also his possessed room-mate – Shiki Senri...

Date started: 8/1/2013

Date completed: 11/1/2013


	37. Chapter 36

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, Rido Kuran appears… the newly returned Shiki, and with him brings new troubles along to the school. What would be happening next? Also Takuma's increasing frequency of having a headache in keeping the possessed Shiki in line…and also Yuuki's awakening to her pureblood heritage towards the end.

Chapter 36 – In which Kuran Rido arrived at the academy…

Takuma Ichijo felt his worries grow with every step he took; he was now leading Shiki Senri towards the direction of the Moon Dormitory. Now, if the Shiki Senri behind him was the usual one he would not be this worried – but no, the Shiki behind him was actually the uncle of his pureblood friend, Rido Kuran.

He might have appeared to be unfazed on the outside, but deep inside him – it was another matter entirely. It would not even be exaggerating to say that he was a ball of nerves. The coffin containing the body of Kuran Rido was already 'shipped' in by his grand-father's servant through the back entrance of the dormitory building in prior, after being camouflaged as part of his luggage from home. Currently, if nothing went wrong with the 'moving' process – it would be sitting in his shared dorm room with Shiki now. Another sigh left his lips as he thought about his room-mate, seems like ever since his knowledge of Shiki was being possessed by Kuran Rido – this has being all he ever done.

Initially, he had been hoping that Rido would not be gaining access to Shiki's memories following his possession of the teen. Unfortunately, his silent pleas were left unanswered when Rido suddenly brought up the topic of one Touya Rima for discussion. Rido had asked if Rima was actually the girlfriend of Shiki, a justified question to be asking – since those two are always sticking together. One would never be seen without the others… And then the dreadful questions came, Rido had inquired about Akane and the twins' presence.

"Welcome back, Ichijo Vice-President." The maids, whom had answered the door, greeted the green eyed blond vampire – drawing him back into the reality plane.

"Good afternoon, sorry for the late return… was there anything that required my immediate attention?" Takuma had asked, trying to sound like his usual cheerful self.

While Takuma get himself re-accustomed back to the duties of the Vice-President, Shiki Senri or rather Rido Kuran was busy surveying the environment.

"Ichijo…"

The sudden sound of his name being called jolted the green eyed blond back to his senses, hurrying to sign some documents – he went back to the awaiting teen, and started to direct them both up to their shared dorm rooms. Earlier on, he had made use of the memo pad of the maids and jot down some questions pertaining to the whereabouts of the night-class members in general. The maid, though bewildered by his sudden desire to play 'passing message' had gladly indulged him in it this once without questions being raised. The answer he received was a simple and clipped one, with only the sentence 'President Kuran sends them out to do something.'

"So where are the lots of them? Don't try to fool me by telling me they had all retired for the night, because I can't sense any of their presence around here. Those that I sensed were mainly from the Common Class." Rido started, dropping his pretence image of being that son of his – once Ichijo closed the door leading to their shared room, almost immediately.

"They are out for the day…" Takuma eventually said.

"Oh…? Under my nephew's orders…?" An arch of the eyebrow as the man questioned.

"Yes." The green eyed blond responded in a flat-tone.

"Inform me when that Rima girl is back then…" Rido then said, causing the Vice-President of the Dormitory building to turn immediate eyes towards him.

"Well… seeing as Shiki and that girl are on very good terms, it would be weird for me not to meet her now that we are back in the academy – right? Why are you so jittery?" Rido asked, eyeing Takuma intently with his blue and green orbs respectively.

"…Let me kindly remind you of one thing also, while we are inside the school compound there are some things which you have to follow. I'm certain that you do not wish to have your cover blown this easily and this fast, right?" Takuma throws back at the man who is now hogging on to the body of his friend, though annoyed by that sheer fact – there was nothing he could have done at this current point of time.

If Rido Kuran was being irked, he did not showed it then – he merely choose to dismiss the presence of Takuma Ichijo from his sight with a mere wave of his hands. With that, Takuma exited the room which he would be sharing with that Rido Kuran character for an unknown period of time and made his way back downstairs to fret some more.

"Kaname-sama, they have reached." Seiren's voice whispered as she resumed her position with the group making their way back to the Moon Dormitory with stealth.

"I see…" Kaname's reply was in a flat-like manner, his features a mask of indifference. He was trying his hardest to reign in his overflowing urge to lash out, but because of the twins' presence – he had silently willed himself to curb it down.

"Akane…" Kaname then started, stopping the sandy-haired girl in her steps as she turned inquiring eyes towards him.

"Ichijo has returned…and with him, Shiki Senri."

"…I see; I give you my word that I will protect them with all I have." Akane then said her face solemn.

"Good. Ruka and Risa shall assist you, and with that – I gave you the right to command the Common Class under my wing." Kaname responded then, obviously the girl had a very clear idea of what was to happen. Her solemnity pertaining to the return of Ichijo and Shiki had speak volumes, and because he would be pre-occupied with the issue of Yuuki and probably Zero then. The responsibility that befalls on the girl would be heightening to a new level…

"Akane…?" Subaru and Akira looked up to their elder sibling with a questioning gaze, and it was returned by one of Akane's serious ones.

"Boys… it's time to get your-selves familiar with the family history of both the Kurans and the Kiryuu Clan." Akane decided, the only way to get the twins to distance them-selves from the newly returned duos – in particularly, their favourite uncle Shiki… it was to educate them on the bloodied past of both clans.

In order to prevent anyone from listening in, Akane had smuggled the two boys and the two vampire female guards of the boys into the Sun Dormitory for girls – specifically into the room of one Wakaba Sayori and Yuuki Cross.

"Honestly, I didn't keep my room window open for this particular purpose – you know?" Wakaba Sayori commented with dried sarcasm.

"I know… but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Surely, you won't mind – right?"

"Just my luck for being the one getting the only room that would not be subject to any spot check by the dorm manager…" Sayori muttered under her breath, as she 'removed' her presence from the room leaving it to the privacy of the future trio plus the two bodyguards send in probably by the pureblood prince to guard them.

"Surely you had take advantage of it at certain times too, isn't that right?" Akane throws back at the girl.

"Gees… hurry up with the story telling, I do not wish to have to end up explaining the reasons why I am outside of my own room after curfew hours when the dorm manager came by in a while time." Sayori throws back just as evenly.

Meanwhile, an exhausted Touya Rima had returned to the Moon Dormitory only to throw herself onto the sofa couch situated in the front hall of the building.

"Ms. Rima – you have a guest waiting for you since afternoon." The maid come front to greet the exhausted female.

"Can't you just tell the person to come back later?" Rima grumbled, too tired to bother with anything at the current moment.

"Rima…I'm back." The sudden sound of Shiki's voice jolt the female vampire into a sitting position as she turned wide eyes towards the teen who had vanishes from sight for the whole vacation.

"Shiki…where have you been all these while, and what happened with your eyes?" Touya Rima who had taken the time to observe her friend from head to toe, suddenly frowned and asked with concern.

"Aa… nothing for you to worry about, just something that has happened during vacation." Rido responded, before steering the conversation towards his hunger for blood and attempted to get Rima to feed him some.

"Shiki, that's enough already. Have you forgotten that these kinds of acts are not allowed within the school? Besides, we still have other pressing matters on hand to be dealing with." Ichijo Takuma stepped forth then, interrupting the situation before it worsens.

"AH… there you are; Kaname-sama says for you two to go and look for him over at the rooftop of the old school building." Akane suddenly spoke up from behind, startling the duos out from their eye-contact.

"…Akane…"

"Yo! What's with that gloomy expression? Did your grand-father force you on another match-making session back home?" Akane asked, cheerfully as she greeted the green eyed blond vampire in front of her.

Takuma Ichijo was completely thrown off-guard by Akane's question, since when did his grand-father ever put him through any match-making session? However, before he could even question the girl about her previous statement – he nearly stumbled upon Akane's words towards Rido Kuran in general.

"Woah… Shiki, you did not vanish for the whole vacation to get a pair of new contacts – did you? But why did you get contact lenses that are of different colours?" Akane cocked her head slightly in a quizzical manner, causing Rido Kuran to let out a rich tone of laughter.

"Quite an interesting comment you have there…Akane – right? I'll speak to you again." With that said, Rido beckoned for Takuma Ichijo to join him as they ventured off in search for one Kaname Kuran.

Akane mentally heaved a sigh of relief as she witnessed the duos going away for the time-being, during which period of time whereby she had distracted the newly returned Shiki and her own cousin – the twins have safely entered the premises of the pureblood's room through the use of the windows. That is, of course, only after they masked up their presence by concealing their pureblood auras. It was kind of hard, especially with the case of Akira – but eventually they managed.

Kaname Kuran stood tall and proud atop of the old school academic building's rooftop; staring down at the whole school compound. He had sent the twins back to the Moon Dormitory building, under the protection of both Ruka Souen and Risa Miyazaki. Though, he felt bad about having to sends Akane off to distract that uncle of his – he still had to do it. Thankfully though, the eldest of the future trio had not minded that fact and in fact, was volunteering for it – herself.

"It has been a long time, hasn't it? My dear nephew…" The sudden sound of the greeting message jarred the resident pureblood of the academy out from his thoughts.

"Indeed, but even now – the sound of you greeting me as your nephew still managed to send chills down my spine. My dear uncle Rido…" Kaname then started to turn his eyes upon the new-comer.

"By the way, I would just like to have you known – those wounds that you'd given me on that fateful night are indeed quite painful to say. The day you literally tore my body parts to shred, the aftermath of it was so serious that it took me till now to finally be able to recover from them." Kuran Rido said, from the lips of one Shiki Senri.

"…" There was no response from Kaname just yet, because he knew the other is not quite done with the words yet.

"Speaking of which, over the past 10 years… quite a lot has had happened. Even my ex-fiancée – Shizuka Hiou has died. Well, that alone to me was quite a relief. Even if I do have the intention to convert her to be as obedient as the mother of this particular son of mine – I probably do not have the patience around to wait it out." Rido said as he pointed to the body which he was currently in control, smiling sadistically as he said.

"What a relief to see that you hasn't changed a single bit over the past ten years, at least that will make it easier for me to kill you – again." Kaname Kuran said, as he allowed his aura and fury to leak out from him – lashing out at the speaker.

"Now wait a minute, Kaname! I'm sorry to say this, but I can no longer stand aside and watch. I would not allow Shiki to be trapped in between the two of you anymore." It was at this particular point of time, Takuma Ichijo – who had been witnessing silently on the sidelines dashed into the attack range by placing himself directly in front of Rido Kuran as he addressed Kaname.

"I see… and so may I interpret this act of yours as your desire to stick by the council for this?" Kaname commented, his face devoid of emotions making it hard for Takuma to read his actual intention on this issue.

"I can't help but accept if that is what you intend to think me of…" Takuma responded, he disliked the idea of having Kaname thinking him as a potential enemy but still he could not stand by and watch the poor Shiki being dragged into this whole muddy area without any consciousness of his own.

"Now now… Ichijo, you worried a little too much. Kaname hasn't been serious in his attack earlier on. It would be kind of pointless for him to be damaging a body which I'm only borrowing for usage." Rido Kuran speaks up from behind the green eyed blond vampire.

"However, basing on my judgement – there is still a high chance of Kaname being serious with what he did earlier on." Takuma surmised, his pureblood friend certainly would not be joking on such matters.

"…Whatever, so long I can get my hands on the ultimate ingredient for my revival… and speaking of which, has that kid awaken from that long peaceful 'sleep' of hers? I am certain that you are quite aware of what I am talking about… don't you?" Rido mused.

"Rido… do not assume that you would be able to get your hands on her that easily. I would never let you!" Kaname started warningly.

"Well… that might be the case if there is no distraction of sort, but it seems like recently – the amount of items that you valued had somewhat increased, hasn't it?" Rido started.

Kaname eyes harden and narrowed into slits upon these words pouring forth from Rido, not even bothering to hide the amount of fury leaking out from him – Kaname said. "Don't you dare to lay a single finger upon them, or I would not hesitate to tear you down to shreds – again."

"We shall see about that, shan't we?" That was the last thing Rido had said towards Kaname, before leaving the area with one hesitant Ichijo Takuma in tow.

Later on in the night around eleven p.m. perhaps, Zero felt a presence sneaking into his room through the open window of his dormitory room within the Sun Dorm.

"Good heavens, Kaname – why the hell are you here? You shouldn't be here, you know?" The silver-haired teen muttered aloud, when he turned and acknowledged the intruder of his room.

There was no response from the pureblood, and the next thing Zero remembered was the feeling of him being pushed against the wall while Kaname's lips was upon him in a rough and bruised like manner.

Minutes fleeted them by before Zero could finally breathe again; a frown marred his features as he took in the sight before him. The black trench coat of Kaname that was left unbuttoned on purpose flapped wildly as the wind blown in through the open window-way, the expression on the said person's feature was a mix between anguish and raw unmasked desires.

"Kaname…?"

"He's here…" There was no need for Zero to ask for the identity of the person in Kaname's response, he knew it well enough – Rido Kuran.

"Okay…so what's next?" The silver-haired hunter questioned, because he had absolutely no idea as to what Kaname had planned in mind to do.

"It's probably time to wake Yuuki up…" The pureblood then said.

"Right… then why are you here? Yuuki's over at the Chairman's place, I'm sure you know that." Zero commented dryly.

"That would mean I would have to bite and marked her, same thing after she wakes – she would have to bite and feed from me." Kaname responded, sounding slightly troubled by it – which baffled Zero to no end.

"And…?" Zero pressed on, wanting to know just what exactly was plaguing the mind of Kaname Kuran.

"Can we complete that bond of ours now?" Kaname asked then, he did not want to force himself upon Zero and that was why he had thought to ask. He wanted the bond to be complete under willing terms, because only then would they be bond in the manner which he had yearned for.

"…Kaname, you know how I feel about that." Zero responded, his tone exasperated.

"Then come with me." Kaname sighed, Zero's response was kind of within his expectations and since he can't have what he desired most at this point of time – he would have to bring up the alternative.

"Excuse me? You're not telling me to watch the entire process of how you waked Yuuki, are you?!" Incredulity apparent on Zero's feature, as he voice his question across to that dark-haired pureblood facing him.

"Zero…you know how it gets after the marking process…I need you there to stop me before I had it in me to go all the way with her." Kaname replied in a deadpanned manner.

"I thought that was how it initially should be?" Zero throws back at the pureblood, sounding a little sarcastic. Of course, he knew how it would be like after the marking process – horny is the term for it.

"Zero…! You know how I feel about you, don't you?!" Kaname snapped, before he managed to get his tone under control - again.

"…I know…and as much as I hated to admit it, but it would appear that I felt the same way for you too…" Zero's response was almost inaudible, if it were not for the fact that Kaname still had the former pinned against the wall – he would have missed it altogether.

"…" Kaname stared; stunned at what he had heard coming from the silver-haired teen… this is the last thing he thought he would have heard under the current situation.

"Granting you the permission to complete the bond as of current would be impossible for me to handle at this point of time, so I'm just going to pick the lesser of the devil." Zero then started speaking again, this time his tone even despite the slight tinge of pink in his cheeks – a direct result from his earlier words of confession to the pureblood.

"Huh…?" Kaname blinked, was there anything he had missed when he zoned out earlier on?

"Well… didn't you say you want to go and retrieve Yuuki in order to wake her up or something?! Speaking of which, where are the twins?" Zero asked, making a grab for his uniform jacket and tucked his 'Bloody Rose' into the gun holster of his pants.

"They are most likely back in the Moon Dormitory, no point trying to hide them. If Rido wanted to find them, he will – no matter where we tried to hide the kids. In which case, we might as well just leave them be." Kaname responded, sounding weary of it even.

"Will it be safe for them to …" Zero frowned, wishing very much that he could be staying by their side 24/7 but he knew that is impossible. Lessons have to go on as per normal, until the inevitable came for them to fight.

"I've asked Ruka and Risa to guard them at all times, I've even entrusted the command of the common class vampires to Akane for that purpose."

"Would it be enough to keep them safe?"

"I don't know… but we could hope. For now, let's get the issue of Yuuki settled first…" Kaname said, and soon the duos were on their way over to the Chairman's place to retrieve the most likely distressed female guardian.

It seems like Kaname's decision to wake Yuuki was a right one, after all. The moment Zero had strolled through the door; he was tackled down by the distressed girl whom had her hands around his neck – in a very convenient position to strangle him. Throwing a look over to the pureblood, Zero shoots the man a look that says 'Wait'. Then, he tried to calm the distressed girl down.

Once the light of recognition dawns in on Yuuki, the girl started her incessant apologizing acts again. This time, Zero had kindly stepped aside and allowed the pureblood prince to take over his initial position. He watched in silence as Yuuki pleaded and begged to remember her past, and pressing on the pureblood – the reason behind her emptied past and his long-time affections for her.

"It's okay already… it has been long enough, and now is time for you to wake up to the reality." Kaname had told Yuuki before he shared a look with Zero, then making his exit with Yuuki in his arms using the window. Zero followed suit, but using the normal door-way instead.

"Zero…?" The Chairman started, most likely to ask about Zero's rushing stance.

"No time to explain, I'll tell you later." Zero throws over his shoulders as he ran across the school compound, allowing his vampire senses to lead him to where the pureblood was.

However, halfway across the lawn – he run smack into the figure of his mirror image. His steps faltered for a spilt second, as they stared right into the eyes of one another before Zero snapped back to his immediate task on hand and zoomed right past his twin without even bothering to demand for an explanation from his twin. Even as he passes right by the figures of Ichijo Takuma and the possessed Shiki Senri – he did not bother to acknowledge them.

"I see… my blood hasn't been put to use at all." Rido commented, retrieving the bottle of blood he had passes to the younger Kiryuu twin through the uncle of Shiki Senri prior to the boy admittance to the academy.

"Yes, Rido-sama…" Ichiru responded in the perfect aristocrat way of mannerism.

"Well… it doesn't matter, I guess. So long that girl had the blood of the Kuran ingested in her…" Rido muttered to himself.

"In which case, I shall head off to guard the coffin. I sincerely hoped that your revival ritual would be complete without hurdles and then help me out in the avenging for Shizuka-sama." With that said, Ichiru took his leave from the site.

Zero arrived at the scene shortly after Yuuki was bitten and 'turned', but it seems like the girl still looked a little 'out' from it. The silver-haired hunter observed from where he stood, as Kaname used his sharp fangs to draw some blood of his own using his mouth then he leaned down and captured Yuuki in a 'kiss' or sort. The sight disturbed Zero greatly, far more than the sheer fact that Yuuki was 'turned'.

"Kaname Kuran!" Zero yelled aloud and narrowed his eyes as he trained his gun upon the pureblood prince, alerting the duos of his presence.

"No wait… Zero! You can't shoot him, he's my elder brother!" Yuuki cried out in a distressed manner, staring up at Zero with those pitiful eyes of hers.

"…" The two male vampires fell silent; the pureblood was fighting a twitch in his lips while Zero fought the urge to face-palm.

"Yuuki… when did I say anything about shooting him?" Zero eventually managed in a tone that spelt exasperation.

"Eh…?" Yuuki's eyes widen at Zero's words, half in shock and half in bewilderment.

"Never mind, so what's next?" Zero throws his words over to where the other Kuran stood, annoyance clearly visible when he detected the slight mirth in the other's eyes.

"Now we retreated back to the Moon Dormitory, lessons for the night-class will be suspended till further notice. Yuuki would need some time to sort through the torrents of memories flooding through her as well… and also, a talk would need to be scheduled – between the three of us. I believed." Kaname then said.

"So were you jealous of what I did with Yuuki earlier on?" The pureblood whispered as he passes Zero by, taking his lead in the front of the trio.

"…" Zero's only response is a glare of irritation, now he only wished he had taken a shot at that infuriating pureblood before. How he hated that man teasing him about such things, so what if he was indeed jealous?! Why did the man have to point it out to him, when the former knew that is exactly what's irritating him.

Meanwhile, Kaname remained unfazed despite the number of death glares he was receiving from a certain irate Zero Kiryuu from behind. Thankfully, Yuuki was too pre-occupied as of current to be noticing that little detail. If not… the girl would be panicking all over again over the possibility of Zero shooting her beloved elder brother.

Date started: 9/1/2013

Date completed: 10/1/2013


	38. Chapter 37

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, everything just seem to happen at the same time… very very tough to write T.T How I wish Rido would just died off already… and spare me all these trouble .

Chapter 37 – In which everything just seem to be happening at one go…

"Ah…Aunt Yuuki has awakened…" The sudden announcement of Akira Kuran stunned the many vampires guarding him and his twin. This announcement was made as soon as the vampires within the dormitory caught wind of the lingering scent of their pureblood leader's blood, and of course – the sudden detection of another pureblood vampire's aura.

"…" Subaru sighed inwardly, not knowing how to react to this particular piece of news. The existence of their Aunt Yuuki was always a complicated factor in his parents' relationship; else it would not have taken them several years before coming to terms with their own affections for one another.

"Subaru… stop worrying yourself over nothing. Things are different now." Akane interjected, before making a move to leave the area.

"Akane…?" The two boys immediately turned their eyes upon the girl; they were all now gathered in the library of the Moon Dormitory. Because this is the only place within the building that could possibly contained all of them without any problems of overcrowding or sort.

"I'll be fine; besides your uncle Akatsuki and uncle Aidou … they were both out there." Akane responded, sending a look of assurance over to the twins before leaving the library to head out.

Zero lingered on in the back as Kaname Kuran carried the unconscious body of Yuuki back to the Moon Dormitory, it seems like the sudden torrent of memories that swept through the mind of the girl had rendered her unconscious on her way towards the building.

"So Yuuki Cross is a pureblood, after all…" Aidou Hanabusa commented, upon sighting the return of his pureblood leader. Then he asked. "Is she your sister?"

"The Kurans' does not have a daughter, from what I knew." Akatsuki Kain said from the side.

"She is the daughter of Kuran Haruka and Kuran Juri, hidden from public eyes." Kaname eventually said.

"Enough of that chatters out here, they are on their way over. I have let Touya Rima went out there to buy us some time, Yuuki need to be settled down now. The twins are getting worried, one of you have to be there to calm them down." Akane's sudden arrival snapped Zero back to reality plane, it was obviously not his job to settle Yuuki down.

The sheer notion of what Yuuki would be doing to Kaname later still bugged him a little, but he decided that now is not the time to dwell upon it. He could only hoped that man have enough sense in him not to do anything else aside from getting Yuuki to feed.

"Where are they?" Zero asked, there was no need for further questions – it was obvious that he was referring to the twins' whereabouts.

"The library…" Akane responded, and with that – Zero was gone in a sped of light.

Akane next proceeded to where she had seen Rima headed off to – and was just in time to witness the sight of the model duos being engaged in a fight.

"Rima-chan, would you need any form of help down here?" Akane then spoke up, not wanting to be playing 'dumb' anymore.

"Akane, stay out of this. You'll get yourself injured." Takuma hurried to say.

"Then why the hell are you standing in front of Rima, blocking her from harm's way then?!" Akane throws back at the former.

During the process whereby they were busy chattering among them-selves, Rima was still baiting Rido Kuran with words and eventually one of which sentence managed to hit a nerve.

"Good going Rima! Continue to bait him, Shiki Senri is waking from within… then let them trash around in there and fight for the control of the body." Akane gloated by the side, egging Rima on with her words.

"Akane…!" Takuma was incensed by Akane's aggressive method of handling things.

"I know you are worried for Shiki, but for heaven sake… if he's fine from where I come from – he certainly would not suffered much from this particular short phase of 'mental torture'. Besides, what's the worst that could have happened – at most, render him unconscious at some point of time." Akane snapped; facing Rido Kuran is ten times worst than facing one Shizuka Hiou – in her opinion.

"Come now, Rima… let's get you back to the dorm." Akane then shifted towards the injured noble, and helped her up to her feet.

"…Forget it Akane, I'll handle Rima. You go and keep an eye out on Shiki, set him on one of those charms of yours – if necessary." Takuma finally said, after deciding that the current frozen-like redhead was not considered too much a risk to anyone.

"Daddy…! You're finally here! Where's Father?" Akira asked, as he ran towards the approaching figure of Zero Kiryuu.

"Your father is off to settle down your Aunt Yuuki, and would be here in a moment of time… Now, did you behave yourself while being here?" Zero questioned the boy as he knelt down to address the younger twin.

"I did behave myself… and although it's a little bit boring by now." Akira responded his tone soft and filled with longing for the outside world.

"I see…and where is your brother?" Zero scanned his eyes around the area and upon the sight of his other son missing in action – he question Akira with a frown on his features. Somehow he had a very bad feeling to this, despite the fact that Subaru was usually the obedient one but he would always be the one to run head-on into their enemy when something bothered him.

"Eh…?" Akira's eyes widen upon the sight of his missing elder twin too, and then a quick glance around he found Risa and Ruka also missing from sight.

"…Oh dear, I think he went after Akane…" Akira eventually said when he caught sight of an open window towards the far end of the library. Apparently, their two female guards had gone after the boy out of worry…

"Ruka…" Kaname Kuran whom just came around the corridor of the building started upon the sight of the female blonde vampire, after he told Seiren to gather around those whom can move in the daylight to stand guard around the vicinity area of the Sun Dormitory.

"I'll go ahead first; you stayed behind and listen to whatever Kaname-sama had it in him to tell you." Risa Miyazaki throws over her shoulders, as she ignored the pureblood completely and sped down the hallway – she had a run away boy to be dealing with.

"Kaname-sama…" Ruka started to greet, to have the pureblood waving her off and simply asked what the matter down here is.

"Sorry to inform you of such news, but Subaru-sama had ran off by him-self. We are, as of current, on our way out to get him back." Ruka reported, in an apologetically manner.

"Subaru… he ran off by himself?" Kaname echoed, sounding extremely surprised. He would have expected such behavior from Akira, but not Subaru… that boy was the usually obedient one…

"Kaname, is Yuuki alright?" Zero came out from the library then, and inquired.

"Aa… she's fine, I left her in my room to wait for my return." Kaname responded with ease, whereas Zero shot him a look of 'stupidity'. How the pureblood could merely left Yuuki alone to her device? That girl would sneak out at the very first opportunity available, or was that also within the expectation of Kaname?

True to Zero's words of premonition, Yuuki had indeed sneaked out from the room by making use of the room's window. She was of course stopped in her path by the two blond – Aidou and Akatsuki, whom had been entrusted with the task of guarding her.

"Yuuki-sama, please do not make things difficult for us. Kaname-sama has left behind specific instruction that you are not allowed to leave this premises." The two cousins hurried up front to speak.

"…Aidou-sempai, Akatsuki-sempai… if the two of you are afraid of being held responsible by Kaname-sempai then do feel free to follow me. The place I am heading for – is the Sun Dormitory Building." Yuuki said, her idea in mind is actually quite simple – vampire or not, her responsibility of being the school guardian will not allow her to stand by and watch the scene unfolding in front of her without batting an eyelid.

If the school was to be under trouble, then her responsibility would be to protect the students within. What she had not known was that her room-mate, too has a deeply guarded secret against her – and it would be out in the open soon enough.

Yagari Touga sighed inwardly as he stood outside the gates leading to the academy; he was under specific orders from the Association to put his once favorite disciple under arrest from this point onwards. The Chairman of the Association seemed to have finally deemed Zero as a potential hazard to the general public. However, that was not the only reason behind his coming over now – he had been on a trail of a pureblood vampire whom had vanishes for a period of 10 years and his gut feeling was telling him now that he could find the person he wish behind these gates leading to the academy.

Topping it off together, his old friend – the Chairman of the Cross Academy had called him earlier on seeking his presence. That was why he had finally decided to come over to find things out for himself.

Subaru Kiryuu was on a quest to search for his adopted elder sibling when he chanced upon the veteran hunter – Yagari Touga. His first instinct was to get the hell away from the man, seeing as he was not his younger twin – he had no idea how he was going to 'worm' his way out from the veteran hunter's grasp.

"Pray tell, why on earth are you wandering out here and not staying put at whichever place that you were told to?" The veteran hunter questioned the vampire child in front of him with a frown marring his features.

Rapid footsteps were heard hurrying towards their decision, and then the familiar figure of Zero Kiryuu appeared in front of the duos with another unknown vampire following suit from behind.

"Subaru, come here!" Zero commanded, trying his hardest reign in his temper. Part of him wanted to lecture the boy on his little 'run-away' scheme, and yet another part of him just wanted to fuss and make sure that nothing had befall the young boy in front of him.

"Daddy…I apologized for running off, but I'm concern about Akane…" Subaru responded, trying his best not to cower under the dark look on his 'Daddy' face.

"There's no need for you to concern yourself over it, and besides – Akane got back ten minutes after you run off by yourself with your Aunt Rima in tow. Now hurry up and go back to the Moon Dormitory." Zero said, as he signaled for Risa Miyazaki to step forth and guide the boy away.

"Daddy…" Subaru was about to say something, when Zero cut him off with a 'stern' look and said. "Subaru – do not assume that this matter is over just yet. I am not in the mood to lecture you now, because neither your father nor I have the time for it. Now go with Risa."

"Master Touga…" Zero started, finally making a move to acknowledge his Master when Subaru was no longer in his vision range.

Back in the Moon Dormitory, the room shared by Ichijo Takuma and Shiki Senri – the younger Kiryuu twin was guarding the coffin of Rido Kuran as he had claimed previously. That was exactly how Kaname Kuran chanced upon his entry into the said room.

"Might there be a chance for you to open up that coffin for me, or do I have to resort to doing it by force?" Kaname had asked then.

"Sure, I don't mind doing you such a small favor. Since I am certain that I would be no match for you if we were to fight against one another." Ichiru responded with ease, as he turned and removed those chains that were wrapped around the coffin of one Kuran Rido.

"I see you are quite an obedient one, unlike that twin of yours…" Kaname commented then, causing Ichiru to glare at him from the corner of the eyes.

"Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that you are quite chummy with that twin of mine. No wait… it was probably threading on the lines of love already, seeing how you had easily accepted those nephews of mine." Ichiru throws back at the pureblood coolly before he stepped back and allowed the pureblood to approach the now open lid coffin of Kuran Rido.

"You know it is quite surprising for a set of twins to be born in a family of the hunters' lineage, because by far it has been a common trait that those twins conceived in the mother's womb had a 95% chance of either being miscarried or that one twin would be devoured by the other in the womb. However, the two of you had surprisingly made it out to the world of living without much problems arising." Kaname then proceeded to say as he took a moment to observe the body of his 'uncle' that now lays motionless in that coffin of his.

"…Twins runs in my mother's family, and apparently tradition doesn't matter when it comes down to the Fujiwara." Ichiru responded, calmly though he was slightly irked by the pureblood sudden intention to create conversation between the two of them.

The sudden sound of his katana being pulled out from the sheath held in Ichiru's hands, caused the silver-haired teen to widen his eyes in surprise. With the way the pureblood was now raising the sword above the head level, for a moment he had really thought the man had it in him to destroy the body of Kuran Rido – just like that.

Takuma Ichijo entered the room with the unconscious Shiki draped over his shoulder like some rice sack, and froze for a minute before closing the door behind him.

"Kaname, what on earth are you planning to do now?" Takuma then asked.

"Well… you said you wanted to save Shiki, and the best way I figured is to give Kuran Rido what he wants. The blood of the Kuran which he had craved so much…" With that said, Kaname stabbed the tip of the sword down hard onto his palm letting his rich blood flows out from the wound running freely down the body of that 'uncle' of his.

Meanwhile, over at the Chairman's residence – Zero and Yagari Touga was locked once again in a face-off situation.

"I'm certain that you are not one to be call in this easily with just a phone call from the Chairman, there should be another reason pertaining to why you are here – now." Zero said as he regarded his master in the hunting skills evenly.

"Zero… whose blood did you drink recently? There is something particularly off with that aura of yours…" Yagari Touga then commented, he finds that the aura which his beloved disciple giving off right now getting more and more like those from the noble class and that is unsettling for him. After all, ex-human are supposed to 'fall' not 'rise' above the ranks…

"Touga… this is not the time for such questions." The Chairman then interjected.

"Master, just come out with the information already... You are not one to beat around the bush, leave that to someone else." Zero commented then.

"I'm in pursuit of another pureblood with unknown traces, like previously with the case of Shizuka Hiou – this particular pureblood had also disappeared from the public eyes for a period of 10 years. Now, it was that instincts of mine that brought me here… along with a latest order issued by the association for me to arrest Zero Kiryuu for being a potential danger to the general student body." Yagari Touga responded then, his tone solemn.

"… Do you think I've fallen?" Zero arched an eyebrow up in skepticism towards his master, as he directed his question across.

"Honestly, I do not know. Your aura has changed, but it certainly doesn't struck me as a potential Level E yet." Yagari Touga eventually responded, sounding gruff as usual.

"I am more than certain that during my last visit to the association which is just some bloody weeks ago… I am still quite sane in the mind. That particular Chairman of the Association purposely took me into one of those rooms with bloody scrolls retrieved off the 'dead' and expects me not to go into a bloodlust – that notion alone is next to impossible. Now he sends you over to put me under padlocks using that pathetic excuse…? Doesn't he have any other possible tricks up his sleeves now? How does conspiracy acts with the Vampire branch of the Fujiwara Clan sounds like? That one would seem more plausible in this situation – too, isn't that so?!" Zero throws back at his all time respected model of a teacher – Yagari Touga.

"…Still the situation is too muddy out there, so until it clears up – I'm going to have you stay put in here." Yagari Touga finally said in a clipped tone of voice.

Zero's only response to his master's request was a shrug of the shoulders, there was nothing he could have done out there – yet. Kaname had already sends out the nobles to guard the Sun-Dormitories, protecting the day-class students of the school. Knowing Yuuki, she's probably somewhere in there too – most likely preparing for battle mode. Her responsibility of being the school guardian would not allow for her to sit out on this issue.

The twins are with Akane and the rest of the Common Class vampires that stayed within the Dormitory wall… and Kaname has Seiren by his side at all times. Ichiru… nothing to worry himself with - that twin of his is old enough to make his own judgment. So until the official moment came for Rido Kuran, he is going to abide by his master's words and simply stay put in here.

"Why are you so obedient today?" Yagari Touga then asked, the lack of any response following the end of his announcement to have Zero stay put in the Chairman's residence area was quite a surprise to him.

"…" Not knowing how to answer the veteran hunter, Zero settled for the option of leaning his head against the wall behind the couch he was settled upon with his arms crossed over his chest in a defensive manner.

"Not willing to talk…? Never mind, we can catch up later – for now, I'm going to have a good long chat with that old friend of mine." With that said, the veteran hunter exited from the room Zero was in and proceeded on to go in search for one ex-hunter – Kaien Cross.

Kaname Kuran by now had left the room of Ichijo and Shiki; he was on his way back to the twins and Akane's location. There was nothing else that he could have done, with the contribution of his blood to the revival of Rido Kuran – his role was complete in this.

Being the ancestor of the Kuran Clan brought back to life by Rido Kuran whom had make used of his own nephew body as a form of human sacrificial act – Kaname had no way of inflicting real harm against Rido. His best bet now lies in the capable hands of Yuuki and Zero, combined.

Meanwhile, far across the state where the academy was situated – within the family residence of the Ichijo's… Another secret meeting between the head of the Vampire Council, Ichijo Asato and the head of the hunter's association were in process.

The two conversed about the revival of Kuran Rido, and Ichijo Asato's ultimate aim of using Rido to replace Kaname as the head of the Kuran clan to gain more supporters for the Council. Also, he expressed his worries of why Rido had wanted to be keeping the Kiryuu twins around.

"Well… for one, I highly doubted there is any need to worry yourself over the younger twin. It is the elder one that you have to watch out for…Then again, I've already taken precaution over that little problem." The Chairman of the Association then smirked upon his announcement of his already issued order for the elder twin to be lock up in jail.

At the same time, in an olden traditional style house situated within the city of Kyoto, Japan. Fujiwara Yumi, the clan head for the Fujiwara Vampire Branch turned her eyes upon her trusted assistant – and said.

"Come now; let's make a move on too."

"Yes, my lady." The whole cohort of subordinates of her then knelt and answered her in a respected manner.

"Where's Yuka?" The lady of the house then questioned, again when she failed to notice her willful daughter anywhere in sight.

"I apologized, my lady… but Yuka-sama has already made a move on several hours ago." Mishima Yuko, better else known as Wakaba now – responded.

"I see… then let's not dawdled any longer and get a move on." Fujiwara Yumi concluded, as she left specific instruction of one Fujiwara Sayaka – her youngest to take charge of the house affairs until the issue over at the Cross Academy was settled.

"Saa… let's just hope I am not too late to the party. Come on, Makoto – let's go in and have some fun too." A petite girl of fourteen, with hair in the similar shade of silver like the Kiryuu twins stood outside of the academy's gate as she directed her comment to another male figure standing behind her like a dutiful follower.

"Yes, Yuka-sama..." The man named Makoto responded to the girl, as he took a step forth to push open the gate leading to the academy.

Date started: 10/1/2013

Date completed: 10/1/2013


	39. Chapter 38

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: This is yet another hard chapter to write; so many things at one go… edited twice or thrice, I can't remember. From this point onwards, manga references would be ignored completely… because the back portion of the manga series doesn't fits in with my plotlines anymore. So once Rido's dead – it will be completely AU from original anime/manga series.

Chapter 38 – In which the final showdown approaches…

Ichiru Kiryuu stood in front of the coffin filled with blood of the Kuran, his features unreadable. He was thinking back to the times he had spent with another pureblood, Shizuka Hiou. The same woman whom had wiped out his family, and turned Zero against his wish but was willing to spare his life and took him along with her as she went on her escape route.

The revival process for Kuran Rido is now officially in progress, but there is at least another few hours to go before that body of Kuran Rido could be considered done with the regeneration process. Kaname Kuran; had after all, damaged more than 95% of the body during the fight between the duos about 10 years ago. Even after the 10 years, the self-generating process could only go up to 50% and the last remaining portion of it would lies in the hand of this particular revival ritual.

"It seems like the peace in this academy will be shattered soon." The Chairman of the Academy, Kaien Cross murmured to himself as he started issuing out orders to the day-class students – notifying them of the temporary suspension of lessons. Depending on the situation, the day-class students might have to be send home for the time-being.

"Neh, have you heard?"

"You mean about the classes being suspended issue?"

"Yeah, some says we might have to be send home for a while too…"

"So… you gals want to sneak out to the Moon Dorm to take a peek before that?"

"Are you joking, head over to the Moon Dorm in the broad daylight?!"

Wakaba Sayori observed from the sideline in silence as the conversation around her continues on to revolve around the Moon Dorm and the night-class members, in general. Sighing inwardly, Sayori thought – ignorance is bliss. Wait till the day-class girls realized the true nature behind those night-class members, then the fear will begin.

The ominous feel in the air has yet to subside, if anything – it seemed to be thickening. A slight buzz in her skirt pocket jarred the girl back to her senses, a quick look at the message later – Sayori excused herself from the bunch of ignorant girls crowding in the hallway and made a beeline for previously shared room with Yuuki. Making a grab for her crossbow, and her stock of remaining arrows – she hurried with the process to coat the arrows with poison meant for vampires in general before setting them aside.

When the first sign of a fight out there caught her attention, she wasted no time in slinging the bag of arrows behind her back while gripping her weapon in a tightly grasp manner. The moment when a Level E broke through the window panes to her room, Sayori had been ready for it. In fact, she was about to released an arrow towards it when she detected the familiar presence of a certain aristocrat member from the night-class.

Immediately, she changed her mind and ended up throwing out poison darts instead of releasing her crossbow arrow. Turns out her change in tactic is the right thing to do, as her darts hits the Level E in the chest the same moment an ice dagger was seen piercing through its torso. The next moment, the Level E turns into nothing but sheer dust.

"Yori-chan…!" Yuuki called out to her, drawing her back into reality.

"…Yuuki, glad to see you back – I assumed it's for the Artemis Rod?" Sayori responded, in a knowingly manner.

"Eh…?" Yuuki was quite surprise by her friend's obvious lack of reaction to the 'man' that turned into dust, and in fact the confrontation moment she was waiting for did not even happened. If anything, her friend – Wakaba Sayori was completely calm about seeing her change in appearance. Even the sight of witnessing Aidou-Sempai wielding an ice dagger around formed out from thin air did not get her friend to bat an eyelid.

"Yori-chan… what was all that?" Yuuki finally had it in her to ask, when she noticed the waist pouch full of darts and the bag of arrows sling over her friend's shoulder, not to forget the crossbow held tightly in her friend's hands.

"Yuuki, it's really nice to see you back here but I really do not have the time to explain to you now. There is somewhere that I really need to be, the first wave of attack has started. It would not be long before everything went haywire out there, so I must really get going now." Sayori said, not caring if Yuuki had managed to catch on to her underlying meaning in her words – but she knew the blue eyed blond aristocrat would know what she was trying to get across.

"…Where do you intend to go?" Aidou Hanabusa asked with a frown, as he removed himself from the window sill allowing the girl sufficient room to leave the room.

"I thought you would be able to guess it by now?" Sayori throws back at the blond, calmly.

There was a moment of silence, before Aidou Hanabusa responded. "Go by the back, it's faster – I'll send a message off to Ruka informing her to let you pass."

"Thank you…" Sayori whispered as she passes by the blond, and then a jump later – she was out there running across the path throwing out darts after darts towards that Level E that stood in her way.

"Yori…! It's dangerous out there, get back in here!" Yuuki shouted out to her friend through the window, but Sayori did not bothered with the task of responding and instead was moving at an exceptionally fast speed across the aisle heading for the familiar building of the Moon Dormitory.

Then out of nowhere a Level E jumped out from its' hiding place from behind Sayori and attempted to pounce. Yuuki gasped, and Aidou nearly yelled for his cousin – Akatsuki to help when an unknown man leapt forth and basically slashed the Level E down into half using a katana.

"Thanks Makoto, you saved me there." Sayori throws over her shoulder at the man before continue sprinting towards the Moon Dormitory, there was no need to worry for Makoto – he can handle the night-class members and the explanation him-self.

With Sayori completely out of sighting range, the man named Makoto turned his attention back to Akatsuki Kain, Ruka Souen and the newly arrived Aidou Hanabusa.

"No need to fret, I am not your opponent. For introduction, my name is Sawashiro Makoto though an ex-human but my master is not the same one as those lurking out here with ulterior motives. Now if you excused me for a moment, I need to report to Zero-sama." The man then turned away from the lots of the nobles gathered outside of the Moon Dormitory and made his way over to where the Chairman's residence was situated.

"Zero-sama…? Was there anything that I should know about that?" Akatsuki Kain questioned when he realized he was the only one who simply looked baffled by someone addressing Kiryuu Zero as such.

"…Don't ask me, I had no idea myself. You can bring all your questions up to Kiryuu later on, after this whole fiasco is over." Aidou Hanabusa snapped at his cousin, as he continues to fend off approaching enemies.

"Yes, Akatsuki… saved your doubts and questions for later." Ruka Souen added from her side of the field, sending a kick off to another approaching Level E.

Fujiwara Yuka passes through the line of Level E surrounding the Moon Dormitory perimeter with ease, her pureblood aura flaring out at its maximum level. The Common Class Vampires defending the Moon Dormitory were jittery, the sudden arrival of another pureblood that was not within their expectations stalled them for some moments until Risa Miyazaki emerged from within the building only to kneel down in front of the female pureblood passing them by.

"Good evening, Yuka-sama. I apologized for the delay in welcoming your presence." Risa Miyazaki greeted with respect.

"A-ra… Risa-chan… There's no need for such formalities between the both of us. Come now, has Makoto came by yet?" Fujiwara Yuka asked.

"No, he haven't … I believed he went in search for Zero-sama." Risa responded, matter-of-factly.

"I see…our guests are in there, are they not?" Fujiwara Yuka questioned next, causing Risa to blink in bewilderment for a minute before catching on to the underlying meaning behind the young pureblood lady's words.

"Yes, they are…Would you like to meet them?"

"Definitely, that's the reason why I came in so early anyway!" Fujiwara Yuka nearly squealed in excitement.

Subaru Kiryuu and Akira Kuran froze upon detecting the presence of one Fujiwara Yuka, before they turned wide startling eyes towards their adopted elder sibling – Akane for help.

"Ah! So cute!" Fujiwara Yuka literally dropped all her pretence of being elegant and made a beeline for the twins' location upon landing her eyes on them.

Akane watched by the side-line sweat-dropping when she noticed Fujiwara Yuka squishing her two brothers as though they were plush dolls. Giving it a minute or so to let the girl enjoy her moments, and to entertain herself with her siblings' helplessness – Akane finally interrupted the moment by speaking up.

"Yuka-sama, I would very much appreciate it if you could kindly let them off the hook. As adorable as they might be, they are still living beings and not dolls. Your current actions would no doubt cut off their oxygen supply if continue in a long run."

"Oh… you must be the Akane my future self was telling me before in my dream…Wow, you really do look like Yukari-san!" Fujiwara Yuka took a moment to take in Akane's features before gushing out in a rush.

"You mentioned you heard from your future self… so was there any message meant for us from the future?" Akane asked, she was certain that Fujiwara Yuka would not just randomly bring up the topic of her ability to communicate with her future self through the use of dreams.

"Ah… right, according to the future ME – your parents had said for the three of you to wait for a while longer. Once the time comes for your return – you three would be notified." Fujiwara Yuka responded, before she went back to her task of cooing over the twins again. It remained that way up until the point whereby her servant Sawashiro Makoto brought along the severely injured Ichiru seeking for her help.

Akane, meanwhile, decided to leave the twins to the protection of the newly arrived Wakaba Sayori while she headed back upstairs to Touya Rima's room to check on the two models. Her cousin, Takuma had taken the liberty to shift the unconscious Shiki into Rima's room after it became evident that the revival process for Rido Kuran was in progress.

Entering the room just as Shiki was awakening from his 'sleep', and Takuma was polishing that katana of his to rid off the blood of those brainless Level E who had it in mind to attack him in prior – Akane stalked over to the green eyed blond and said in a steel-like manner.

"You are not going to head out there alone; I am going with you too!"

"Huh…?" Takuma Ichijo blinked once then twice, he had not even said anything about what he intended to do – so why it is that Akane already thought of it?

"…" Shiki Senri was equally bewildered by Akane's words, even he had no idea of what Ichijo was thinking of doing – and yet Akane was demanding to tag along?

"Never venture into a battlefield without reinforcements, and I am going as your back-up." Akane throws at her confused cousin.

"Huh…? Akane, would that be wise – actually? Kaname had no idea about your decision to join me on the trip down to the council, right?" Ichijo Takuma responded to Akane's words with another question of his own.

"True, he had no idea of it as of current but he would be thanking me for it later. Situation is complicated enough; I don't want any further complications to arise." Akane gritted out from frustration, if her memory served her correctly – allowing Ichijo Takuma to head out there alone to slay that grandfather of his would only resulted in the final outcome of him being kidnapped by one sadistic Sara Shirabuki. Akane figured since the history was already changed with their arrival into this period of time-frame, then might as well just changed everything that she feels like doing.

Shiki, meanwhile, was left behind to tend for the still unconscious Rima and when another Level E serving under his father's wing came by to 'check' on his well-being. He retaliated for the first time in history, using his powers against the approaching figures. It was one thing to be allowing that lunatic father of his to possess his body, but totally another when the former used his body and powers to strike out to his best friend.

"Never would I imagine that there would be a day whereby I'm actually defending the vampires." Yagari Touga muttered aloud as he stood by the side of Kaien Cross, his old time friend and the current Chairman to the Cross Academy.

"Sorry for making you accompanying me on this issue… I know it goes against your usual beliefs." The Chairman responded in a serious tone, unlike his usual annoyingly cheerful manner.

"Cross… it has been a long time, hasn't it? Well, although I am impressed by your courage to go through with this co-existent plan of yours but I'm sad to say that this is going to be the end of it. We are here to remove those threats to the common public." The current Chairman of the Association said as he greeted Kaien Cross, with the folded fan held to the front of his lips.

"I apologized but I would not allowed you to do that to the night-class members who are actually trying their best to protect the day-class students as of current, and if they are the ones protecting the day-class population – then I truly believed it is our duty to protect the members of the night-class against you lot of hunters at this moment of time." Kaien Cross responded as he held his weapon out front and pointing to the hunters of the Association, likewise – Yagari Touga had his barrel gun train against those hunters surrounding him too.

"I hoped I wasn't too late into the party…" Fujiwara Yumi appeared in front of Chairman Cross and Yagari Touga then.

"Fujiwara Yumi, what the hell are you doing here?" Someone hiding among the hunters which the Chairman of the Association brought along suddenly spoke up, demanding for a response out from the newly arrived Fujiwara Yumi.

"That, I could ask the same from you – Fujiwara Haruto. Have you forgotten the unwritten rule within the clan?" Fujiwara Yumi throws back; her tone calm but there was something in her tone that sends chills up everybody's spine.

"Ooi, if this is about your family disputes – solve it elsewhere. The two of you are hindering our movements." Yagari Touga interjected, sounding extremely annoyed – snapping every one out from the shell-shock state.

"Indeed." With that said, Fujiwara Yumi unleashed her powers in full fledged and immediately Haruto was roped up and cocooned by her flowing long hair.

The next moment, both Fujiwara disappeared from the hunters' view. However, neither of them made a move to 'save' Fujiwara Haruto – because that is not their position to do so. Fujiwara Haruto may be a hunter but because of the lineage uniqueness – the clan was always on self-governing system.

At the same moment of time, the nobles and common class vampires defending the day-class students found themselves facing off with the envoys from the Vampire Council. Following which, Kaien Cross was facing off the Chairman of the Association and in process dragging out the conspiracy acts between Ichijo Asato and the Hunter's Association.

"Zero-sama, it's time." The sound of one Sawashiro Makoto rang out from behind, and Zero's eyes snapped open in an instant.

"How is Ichiru?" The question was out from his lips almost instantly.

"Ichiru-sama will be fine." That was all Makoto was willing to provide Zero with, he hardly was going to reveal to Zero that his master has ended up 'waking' the vampire genes in Ichiru to prevent the latter from dying due to the excess loss of blood. It will do no good to the elder Kiryuu twin as of current, and would only risk the said person to lash out at everything in general.

Ichiru Kiryuu had turned up in front of Zero approximately half an hour ago, with a fatal injury to the side of his torso – how the teen had managed to cross over the lawn and get to where he was without falling over, Zero had no idea. Then Ichiru had pleaded for Zero to 'eat' him, claiming to say that it will then complete the whole 'change' cycle because Ichiru had quite a vast amount of Shizuka Hiou's blood in him. When Zero had refused, Ichiru had launched into the tale of how the ancestor of the Kiryuu clan had came about despite the injury the teen had had suffered from a failed attack launched upon Kuran Rido.

It had continued on until Sawashiro Makoto came by and simply opted to knock his twin out cold before he was saved from listening in to his twin's account of the story session while worrying over his twin's injury. Then Makoto explained the reason behind his appearance in front of the Kiryuu twins, and then proceeded to throw a bottle of blood towards Zero which he had caught easily with his hand.

{Flashback}

"What's this?" Zero frowned as he questioned the bottle of blood held in his hands.

"Blood from the Hiou Clan... it should have the same effect as the blood of one Shizuka Hiou." That had been the reply given to him by that ex-human, going by the name of Makoto.

"How did you get this?" Zero questioned next.

"My master gives it to me, and don't bother to ask me of its source – because Master did not say." Makoto responded flatly.

Zero flicked his gaze between the unconscious Ichiru, obviously still bleeding and then his eyes flicked to the unmoving man. With a sigh, he uncapped the bottle and chugged it down in one shot – before shifting his eyes back towards the ex-human by the name of Makoto. The next instant, Makoto carried Ichiru up in the arms and vanishes from sight. Now fifteen minutes later, the man was back in front of him without Ichiru.

{End Flashback}

"Let's get a move on then." Zero commented, not bothering to look around for any possible weapons to use because nothing would have worked for him – anymore. His bloody rose had melted into his skin upon his first touch of it, merely five minutes after he ingested that bottle of blood rumoured to be from a member of the Hiou Clan.

Now as he made his way out to the battlefield outside, his senses alert and on a lookout for a particular Kuran princess. Zero was very much aware of his 'Bloody Rose' in him, only existing in a different form now…

"Makoto, go to the Sun Dormitory and stayed there." Zero told the man, as he ventured up front to where he had felt the aura of Yuuki was.

Yuuki Kuran had her 'Artemis' out stretch in front of her, now changed into a form of a Scythe probably to suit her vampire nature. Poor girl must have had a hard time holding in before it gradually accepted her as the new master; after all, anti-vampire weapons are very picky of their wielders. Zero thought.

He however has an easier time with his 'Bloody Rose', then again that is to be expected since his weapon of choice was manufactured by the Fujiwara Clan members. Most likely, it had been custom-made to suit his vampire nature right from the start following his being bitten and turned by Shizuka Hiou back then.

"Subaru… do you have any idea where on earth did Father went off to?" Akira Kuran asked, directing his question to his elder twin who is now reading a book in peace amidst all that chaotic battles going on around them.

"No idea… he didn't say, but I reckon he can take care of himself. Daddy has a very high chance of being out there battling that grand uncle of ours, with our Aunt Yuuki in tow. Akane is out with Uncle Takuma…" The silver-haired boy quoted each and every of their close kin whereabouts to his younger sibling, lest the boy question him again and again disrupting his intention to read in peace.

The sun has set by now, and the common class vampires of the dormitory have more or less being send out to battle with the envoys from the council. Those whom remained are mostly those under specific instructions to tend to both Akira and himself. Also, part of them was actually from the Fujiwara Clan – brought along by Fujiwara Yumi a while ago.

Fujiwara Yuka was now tending to the unconscious and newly turned uncle of theirs… looks like their being here had indeed changed a couple of things for the future. Ichiru Kiryuu is supposed to be dead during this battle, but now he isn't. Daddy would most probably throw a fit pertaining to how Ichiru was not turned by Shizuka Hiou, but ended up being turned by Aunt Yuka instead. Nonetheless, that is to come later on in time – after Rido Kuran has been dealt with.

Fujiwara Yumi is now battling their grand uncle Haruto somewhere out there, whereas Fujiwara Satoshi has a very high chance of waiting everything out in his house situated in Chiba prefecture. The evidences pertaining to the conspiracy acts between Fujiwara Haruto and the Hunter's Association are more or less gathered in Fujiwara Satoshi's hands now. Then the evidences of the Vampire Council being in cahoots with the Hunter's Association are in the capable hands of Fujiwara Yumi, and that is exactly what Yumi is going to be using against Fujiwara Haruto in a while's time.

The sin of going into cahoots with the Hunter's Association is already bad enough, and to go into a conspiracy plan with someone who had conspired with the Vampire Council too was just too incorrigible to be pardoned. Subaru sighed inwardly, pitying the members of Haruto's branch when this whole thing has been blown over – there is a very high chance of them being penalized by the new clan head for withholding information pertaining to Haruto's antics before the situation boils over.

Kuran Rido and Yuuki were already in the midst of a battle when Zero intervened. His newly evolved 'Bloody Rose' now in the form of 'Rose Whip' swept out from right arm and lashes out towards the figure of Kuran Rido without a bat of his eyelid.

"Zero…" Yuuki gasped upon registering the newcomer into the battlefield.

"Step back Yuuki… he is my responsibility to be dealing with." Zero started, never stopping in his actions to lash his attacks on the other pureblood.

"Zero… he is also my responsibility; this man needs to be rid off the plane of living." Yuuki insisted upon on staying where she was, her voice lacing with underlying tone of determination that no one could argued with.

"…Suit yourself, but bear in mind that I will be throwing you out from here if you ever stepped into my line of attack range and prove yourself to be a hindrance instead of being a helpful ally." Zero eventually said, in his usual tone of annoyance.

Over at the Vampire Council, Kaname Kuran had arrived at the site ahead of Takuma and Akane combined it would seem. Using his authority of being a pureblood, he managed to gather the whole lot of the high-ranking council members together in a group saved the exception of one Ichijo Asato. And then he unleashed his overwhelming source of powers and turned them all into nothing but sheer dust in an instant. After which, he proceeded down the hallway heading towards the office of one Ichijo Asato with determination in stride.

"…Looks like Kaname-sama reaches before us…" Akane muttered aloud as she took in the near deserted halls of the council building, and Takuma had all but sprinted towards the direction of his grand-father's office already.

Taking in a deep breath to compose herself, Akane took a minute to mull over her current options. Members of the Shirabuki Clan would be coming in a short while's time, until then she would need to get Takuma safely out of this place and avoid clashing head-on with Sara Shirabuki. What could she do then…? Perhaps if she…

A thought wormed itself into the mind of Akane as she set off to work directly, pulling a dagger out from her cloak pocket – Akane hurried to slice herself and dripped her blood upon some charm papers she had the insight to bring along with her. Then she set the papers coated with her blood around the four pillars in the centre of the lobby, and started to chant an unknown incantations under her breath. Slowly, the papers started to glow an eerie shade of pink before blending into the surrounding fully. This would not be able to hold for long, but should be enough to hinder the members of the Shirabuki Clan for a while and buy them all some-time.

Racing down the hallway to where the office of Ichijo Asato was, she caught hold of the departing figure of Kaname Kuran and said in a hurrying manner.

"Don't leave via the front door, use the back exit or better yet go out using the windows – I set a hindrance charm out there in the lobby to fend off any newcomers. It's meant to target pureblood in general, since my ultimate aim for being here is to stop Sara Shirabuki from abducting Takuma following the end of his actions to kill Ichijo Asato. It would affect you as well, if you stepped into the formation." Akane throws out to the young pureblood lord before he could question her reasons for being here.

"…" Kaname Kuran did not even bothered to press Akane for further details, the girl having arrived from the future certainly was acting on her knowledge of this particular portion of the history. Although, he was still wondering just why exactly Sara Shirabuki would attempt to kidnap Takuma – he decided to leave the question to another day. For now, he decided to take Akane's advice to heart and made his exit from the council using the window way instead.

"Takuma, are you done with it already?! If not, I might jolly well help you with it – you know as much as I do how much I yearn to kill him with my bare hands for some-time already!" Akane yelled out for her cousin's attention before she even enter the room, her most vicious charms and weapons ready at hand to 'send' that grand-father of hers' by blood into hell if Takuma was still not yet done in his task.

"… No need for you to dirty your hands, I'm just about done with him already." Takuma throws back at the girl as he ignored the cold glare of his grand-father and raised his katana above the man's head and sliced into down into half – ending his grand-father in mid-rants of his un-filial acts.

Akane entered the room just in time to witness the end of Takuma's act and frowned for a split second before responding. "You know if killing him caused you this much anguishes to begin with, you should have just allowed me to commit that sin. Unlike you, I do not have any close relationship with him to begin with and henceforth there would not be any guilt for me to live with."

"…No, it is my way of expressing my loyalty to Kaname." The green eyed blond vampire responded then.

A sigh escaped from Akane's lips as she soak in the words of her cousin, a slight pricking feel in her palms where she slashes herself earlier with the dagger for the charm to be invoked snapped her back to reality plane. Making a grab for her anguish-filled cousin, Akane had all but dragged him off towards the window and simply make a leap out from it – startling the teen back to his senses.

"Akane… what's all this about?" Takuma asked, as soon as they had both landed safely down on the grass patch below the window.

"No time to explain, I'll tell you later – and now let's get back to the academy first." Akane responded in a tight voice, her eyes still darting warily around the corner for possible signs of pursuers.

To be frank, Takuma Ichijo was beyond comprehension behind Akane's acts – with his grand-father dead there should be no other problems for them, right? However, it seems like Akane was not going to give him any form of response until they were safely back in the academy. With an inward sigh, the green eyed blond allowed himself to be dragged back to the campus ground by one jittery Akane Kiryuu.

Due to Akane's intervention, by the time Sara Shirabuki gets to the venue – both Kaname Kuran and Ichijo Takuma were gone. Therefore, the daughter of the Shirabuki Clan could only stand aside and fume inwardly as she unleashed her unhappiness onto her supposedly well-trained and capable guards.

Date started: 10/1/2013

Date completed: 15/1/2013


	40. Chapter 39

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: Okay… so I killed off Asato, and because I am too lazy to write about how Rido died… I'm sure those whom read the manga knew it already. Overall, Zero's the one that does the job… so I am going to skip directly to the aftermath of it all. In the end, I decided not to kill off Yuuki – though she can be a tad too annoying for her own good, but well.

Chapter 39 – In which peace is finally restored to the Cross Academy…

"…" Yuuki Kuran stared at the hand that held on to her tightly from before starting to turn ash pale and cracked before dispersing into nothing but sheer dust. The Rose Whip that pierced through the heart of Rido Kuran from behind retracting back to where it originally was, before it all vanishes from sight disappearing under the skin of Zero's pale arms.

Blinking once, then twice – Yuuki could hardly believe her eyes. That Rido Kuran was no more…? Even with that severity of the wounds inflicted upon Rido by her beloved brother – Kaname's hands about 10 years ago, failed to kill the man… but a single shot from Zero's Rose Whip did it, without hurdles?

"Ooi, stop daydreaming and get back in there already!" Zero took one look at Yuuki's expression before stalking over and knocked his fist lightly on the girl's head, drawing the girl back into reality.

"Zero… you are alright with me being a vampire?" Yuuki could not help but asked, she have been coming up with a thousand possible reactions to Zero reacting to her vampire heritage but nothing could come close to the current situation at hand.

There was no anger; no violent reactions either – just merely a look of impassiveness from all the recent development. Was this really the same Zero Kiryuu that she had gotten to know of over the past few years?

Zero ignored the question put forth to him by Yuuki, he was still busy coming to terms with his own 'heritage' problem – Yuuki's vampire heritage was the last thing on his mind as of current. Besides, Kaname had already filled him in with all the events that lined up till the point whereby Yuuki was 'turned' into a human for a period of ten years in prior.

It would just be a matter of time before the vampire side of Yuuki wakes from that slumber and emerged from within. Since he was already mentally prepared for the possibility of facing a pureblood Kuran Yuuki, he certainly would not be irked by the change in Yuuki.

"Zero…?" The sound of Yuuki pestering him for a response caused the silver-haired teen to sigh aloud, one thing Yuuki should definitely learn from that brother of hers' – that is to read moods.

"Yuuki, I can't say I am happy about the change in you but I can't change your heritage so I am just going to suck it down and lived with the idea of it. Does that answer your question?" Zero throws over his shoulders to the girl trailing behind him, sounding slightly annoyed. Though, his annoyance had nothing to do with Yuuki, but more towards the situation in general.

"Zero-sama, Yuka-sama says for you to go to her upon your return." Risa Miyazaki greeted Zero when he arrived back from the battleground with Yuuki in tow.

"I see, and where is she now?" Zero questioned back in return.

"From what I've just heard, she had gone over to the Chairman's place." Risa Miyazaki responded.

"Huh…? What's she doing there?" Zero frowned; certainly that girl had no dealings with his foster parent – right?

"That – I am not very sure of, but Yumi-sama is also there with her." Risa answered truthfully.

"What of Fujiwara Haruto then? Has that issue being settled yet?" Zero arched an eyebrow up in question that was the exact reason why the Fujiwara Clan had gotten them-selves involved in this whole fiasco in the first place when Ichiru first approached them.

"Already tied up in a corner of the Chairman's residence, it would seem." Sawashiro Makoto suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as he responded to Zero's question. And then, he was off heading for the inside of the Moon Dormitory.

"…" Yuuki stared, blinking on in disbelief – nodding absentmindedly to those Common Class Vampires greetings to her as she mulled over the term of 'Zero-sama' in her mind. Just what the hell was going on here? Why was Zero being addressed as such? Not that she minded about the sudden respect being showered upon her friends by a fellow night-class member, but still it irked her slightly that she had absolutely no idea what exactly was going on.

"Zero-sama…" Wakaba Sayori greeted with a twitch in her lips, inwardly wincing at how awkward she had sounded in her greeting.

Then again, she was initially just a normal classmate to Zero Kiryuu; her 'guard' role did not come into play until after the last vacation trip home. One simply cannot adapt to the change of roles at so short a time, right? Or perhaps she was just unnerved that she had an immensely curious looking Yuuki to be dealing with.

"Yori-chan…why are you also addressing Zero as such…?" The pureblood princess of the Kuran Clan was completely bewildered.

"Long story… I'll tell you later, I bet you are tire out from these entire ruckuses going on. Why don't you get yourself cleaned up and settled down – the explanation will come in a short while. In the meantime, I need to report." Sayori shot Yuuki an apologetic look, before turning towards Zero and recounted all the happenings that she had chanced upon while guarding the twins with the assistance of Risa Miyazaki.

Including the piece of news whereby Ichiru Kiryuu was brought in by Sawashiro Makoto to seek assistance from Fujiwara Yuka.

"Where are the twins now?" Zero questioned when he didn't hear the usual enthusiastic greetings from his future sons.

"They are tired out, probably due to all the high stress level around over the past 48 hours. Now they are by the bookshelves trying their hardest not to fall asleep and staying awake in order not to miss out any details. They were quite worried for your condition, I'll add." Sayori commented, gesturing towards one of the shelves in the library of the Dormitory.

"Hn. You might want to find some time to head back to the Sun Dorm; the dorm manager might find it strange for you to be missing." Zero commented, as he picked the sleepy boy up in his arms.

"Daddy…?" Akira blinked sleepily when he felt strong arms carrying him up, and upon the sight of the silvery hair strands – the boy murmured before allowing his eyelids to droop fully.

"Akira dear… don't fall asleep yet, come now… you need a bath before you can sleep." Zero told the little boy, as he started for the direction of the stairs.

"Subaru put aside that book for a little while – I am sure the book will not disappear by itself. Come now, you are joining your brother in the bath too." Zero directed his speech to the silent boy then, and Subaru nodded quietly and followed dutifully behind Zero as they headed for the pureblood Kuran Prince's room to get settled down.

Shooing the two boys into the bathroom, Subaru took one look in his twin direction and sighed in resignation. Looks like Akira was going to have their 'Daddy' aiding him in the bathing procedures, seeing as Akira can't really handle it on his own. Chances of Akira falling asleep in the bathtub are too high, and so Subaru made his way for the showers stall instead. The showers stall and the bathtub could both be used at the same time and that goes to show just how big the private bathroom in Kaname Kuran's room was.

Zero knew the younger twin was completely exhausted, it could be seen from the way Akira was fighting his drooping eyelids and trying to stay awake for his sake. Hurrying up with the bathing process, the silver-haired teen reached for the boy's towel and wiped him dry before dressing him up in a set of teddy bear design pajamas set.

"Okay, all done… Come now." Zero commented as he hoisted the boy up in his arms, and made his way towards Kaname Kuran's canopy bed – then proceeding to tuck the younger boy under the covers with a peck on the boy's head.

"Goodnight Daddy…" Akira mumbled before slipping into oblivion.

"Goodnight Akira…" Zero murmured back in response, before shifting his attention to the other boy who had just emerged from the bathroom – completely dressed in the night attire.

"Why are you still standing there? Come over here!" Zero said, and then the silver-haired boy come padding towards him – still looking hesitant about something.

"Subaru, your actions of wandering off alone just now was rather reckless. If you hadn't been found by Master Touga, and was found by someone else – you might be in peril danger. Are you aware of that?" Zero prompted, knowing that if he left the issue hanging there is likelihood that Subaru would not be falling asleep anytime soon.

"Sorry Daddy…" Subaru said in a muffled tone of voice, staring sullenly down at his feet in guilt.

Zero took in the boy's apologetic look and sighed, before responding. "I shall let it slip this time around, but you had better prepared yourself for your father's lecture to come in time." Zero warned then.

Nodding obediently, Subaru started to climb onto the bed and get ready for his long over-due sleep too. Just like Akira, the elder twin also fell asleep soon after his head hits the pillow.

"Okay… now what?" Zero muttered aloud, and then he recalled Risa Miyazaki's earlier words to him and sighed. "Looks like a visit to Fujiwara Yuka would be next on the agenda…but I could perhaps use a shower first."

With that, Zero wasted no time in raiding Kaname's wardrobe for some clothes that he could probably 'borrow' for a minute.

Kaname Kuran arrived back at the Academy sometime around 4.a.m. and was immediately greeted by his most loyal supporters – Ruka Souen; Akatsuki Kain and Aidou Hanabusa. The trio then started to fret over his well-being and also to pose questions that will help them clarify the present circumstances.

"Kaname-sama, May I inquired why the Fujiwaras' involved them-selves in this situation?" Aidou then asked, after the pureblood had pretty much proved him-self unharmed during his trip to the council.

"Aidou… you are always the anxious one, aren't you?" The pureblood mused, before he responded again.

"The questions would be addressed at a later stage of time, for now – let's deal with the repercussions. The Chairman should be done with his share of the fight now, the day-class students need to be attended to. I suggested for the lot of you to aid Seiren in that, while I headed back to the dormitory building to attend to other matters at hand. If anyone of you happened to see Ichijo and Akane, send them over to me."

With that said, Kaname Kuran made his way back towards the Moon Dormitory Building without another look in the nobles' direction.

"Chairman Cross…" Wakaba Sayori greeted, her voice jolting the rest of the aristocrat members of the night-class back to their senses.

"Thank you every one for your effort made in protecting the day-class students, and in its process blowing your own covers of being a vampire in nature. And although my ultimate aim was to promote co-existence between both races – but with what has been happening over the past 48 hours to boot has kind of put a dent in my plan as of current." The Chairman was saying, before he was abruptly cut off by his hunter's friend – Yagari Touga.

"Cross, stop blabbing and get to the point already!" Yagari Touga snapped as he slapped his hand onto the back of the Chairman's head.

"Ouch, that hurts!" The Chairman moaned aloud as he turned to his friend with a pitiful look in his eyes, only to receive a roll of eyes in response.

"…" Sayori watched on the scene with a shake of head, although she felt the urge to remind the Chairman his current outlook does not suits his antics of whiny episodes but she managed to suppress it down. She was never one to say such things and she intends to keep it as that…

"Okay… fine, I get the point – no need for you people to glare and stare. Right, I am certain that with the current state the school building has now become… it would definitely require some time to finish with the fixing procedure. Therefore, it has been decided that the school shall be closed for the term, and resumed next term instead.

Students are to leave academy grounds for home until the notification of school re-starting were sends out to their residential address, but before that – it would be good for the memories of theirs' pertaining to the events of the last 48 hours to be remove from their mind. Like I'd mentioned before, my ultimate aim is co-existence and therefore if the student insisted upon having their memories intact – then we shall leave it as that." The Chairman added, glancing in the direction of Wakaba Sayori as he said so.

"…" Sayori knew the Chairman was saying this for her benefit, but she cannot afford to be the only one not subjected to the removal of the memories procedure. That was why the Chairman had given the students the option to choose between retaining and discarding the memories of the past 48 hour's events leading up to the temporary closure of the school.

"I shall take it as Rido Kuran is officially dust to ash?" The sudden invasion of Akane's voice bring Sayori out from her train of thoughts, as she turned her eyes upon the missing girl for most if not all of the evening hours.

"Well… yes, I thought you would have known that already?" Sayori responded.

"It never hurts to be certain." Akane replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Kaname-sama says for you and Ichijo to report to him upon returning to the academy." Akatsuki Kain then interjected, drawing a close to the conversation between Wakaba Sayori and Akane.

Kaname Kuran entered his room just in time to witness Zero emerging out from his private bathroom with hair dripping wet, obviously the former was in the showers prior to his coming in. A quick glance of his silver-haired lover, he was blessed with the sight of Zero being wrapped loosely in his white bathrobe.

"Took the liberty to use my shower, did you?" The question was out from his mouth before he could put a stop to it.

"Obviously…" Zero retorted dryly, before he added on as an afterthought. "You looked as though you needed one – too. The shower or a bath, whichever you prefer..."

The pureblood ran his eyes down his own appearance, before sighing aloud. Seems like Zero was quite right about him needing a shower, his whole coat is covered with dust, soot and blood from the battles out there. If only he could arrive several minutes in prior, then probably he could have tried his luck out at the idea of sharing a shower or a bath with his wonderful Zero…

"Well, aren't you going in?" The prompt in Zero's words jolted the pureblood back to his senses, as he trudge over to his wardrobe and retrieve new clothing for him-self only to arch an eyebrow up in surprise when he found one of his boxer shorts missing from his undergarments collection.

"I see that you have really made yourself comfortable around here…" Kaname smirked then, causing the silver-haired guardian to throw him a look of annoyance.

"You did mention that I could borrow some of yours during my last visit here, didn't you?" Zero throws back with a mock glare directed towards the pureblood, remembering the last time he was here – that guy had practically make use of the twins to get him into agreeing to stay the night. Heck, the man was even suggesting for them to share a bath – of course, he had not caved in to 'that' request back then.

"That – I most certainly did." Kaname mused, before he made a move to enter the bathroom only to pull the unsuspecting Zero back into the bathroom with him.

"What the hell… Kaname, let go now!" Zero glared at his assaulter, trying to look threatening but failing miserably because his glare towards the former no longer held that much venom as before.

"Why…? Don't bother with the shooting me issue, you and I both know that is kind of impossible now." Kaname smirked outright then, the 'Bloody Rose' had been melted into the skin of his pale-skinned lover and converted into the form of a whip. That, he had heard from Yuuki earlier on when he went to check on the girl.

"I may not have the Bloody Rose on me anymore but my Rose whip isn't all that harmless to vampires either." Zero throws back in response, not giving in without a fight.

"You can try, but I'm not letting you go now… I missed you." With that, Kaname Kuran wasted no time in capturing the silver-haired teen in yet another bruising but passionate kiss on the lips. Then his hands started to move on its own accord, the next thing Zero knew – the bathrobe he had been wearing slide off his shoulders and then falling into a heap landing on the bathroom floor.

Outside the bathroom, on the bed – the two kids slept soundly and totally oblivious to what their young parents are busying them-selves with in the bathroom under the disguise of the running water.

Two hours later, a fully satisfied pureblood exited from the privacy of his bathroom with his beloved partner held in his arms – bridal style. He had finally succeeded in his attempt to complete that bond between Zero and him; granted the silver-haired teen had looked very much tempted to kill him back then. However, that was just during the beginning stages of it – by the time the deed was half-way into the process; it was completely another issue for his silver-haired lover already.

Pecking Zero lightly on the forehead, he set the teen gingerly down onto his large canopy bed beside the elder twin – Subaru. And then Kaname allowed his eyes to take in the sight of the three exhausted figures on his bed sleeping peacefully for a minute, before he made a move to leave the room. Although, he was quite tempted to sleep his fatigue off like the trio – but unfortunately, he still had other pressing matters to attend to.

Akane and Takuma Ichijo shared a look among them-selves when they detected the familiar scent of blood belonging to the Kuran being spill, soon after the scent of Zero's blood was detected in the air.

"…Okay, now I am certain – it's not Yuuki but Kaname whom had bled." The green eyed blond said slowly and deliberately.

"Judging from how the scent was light as compared to the previous time around, I reckoned they did it in the bathroom. The water from the showers must have washed out the blood a little, hence the mild scent." Akane mused as she wondered how embarrassed Zero was going to be the following day.

"Well then… I highly doubted Kaname-sama has the time for us now. So why don't you enlightened me on the reason behind your insistence to hurry back to the academy grounds now?" Takuma Ichijo said, as he shifted his glance towards his one Akane Kiryuu.

"It might sound ridiculous for you, but I had no reason to be lying either – therefore I highly suggested for you to just leave it as it is after I am done with the explanation." Akane warned, and then went on to relate the events that would most likely occur if she had not intervened back at the council.

"…You are not telling me that if we dawdled any longer in the council, we are going to get ourselves kidnapped by Sara Shirabuki – are you?" The green eyed blond vampire sounded incredulous when he finally caught on to Akane's explanation of her previous jittery state during their return from the council.

"I am not kidding here, and correction – the only one whom will be kidnapped by her is you. That is, if I hadn't intervened and merely allowed the history to run its own course." Akane responded with mild annoyance.

"But why would she want to kidnap me?" Takuma pressed on, failing to see a possible reason behind what Akane had just relayed to him.

"Gees… I don't know, okay?! Neither the future you nor Kaname-sama had it in mind to reveal the reasons behind it. Although, from what I've gathered – the kidnapping of you did caused a series of troubles to come in time and so I thought I might as well intervened and put a stop to all possibilities of it happening all over again!" Akane snapped.

"…Okay…I get it, no need to bite my head off at it." Ichijo Takuma immediately surrendered, it was obvious the lack of sleep is getting to his cousin and he supposed he could put off the questions for a little while longer – and so he wasted no time in sending the girl back off to bed.

Yuuki sat on the edge of Akane's bed uneasily, she had been told by her beloved brother to be staying in here until he came back for her. And that was apparently an hour ago, now as she stayed in here – she could not helped but wondered just what exactly was happening outside and why is it that there is a mild scent of Kaname's blood lingering in the air. Has Kaname being hurt somehow during his trip out there?

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she failed to register that the rightful owner of the room has now returned and has been trying to gain her attention for the past ten minutes. Until, Akane resorted to the act of hitting her hard on the head.

"Ouch!" Yelping out when she felt the pain on her head, Yuuki finally snapped her eyes towards her 'attacker' in annoyance before it gave way to a sheepish look.

"Good to see that you are finally back down to the plane of reality." Akane commented, when she finally had the girl's attention to her-self.

"Akane…" Yuuki started, debating whether or not to ask Akane about her beloved brother's condition when Akane addressed her unasked question.

"Kaname-sama is fine; the blood is not from any wound. If you really must know, he's just feeding Zero." Akane said after some slight hesitance on her part.

"Eh…!" Yuuki's eyes widen upon Akane's statement, shock apparent on her features. She had thought Zero to be feeding from Akane all these while, but obviously she was quite out of the loop for some-time already judging from the tone of Akane's voice – this is not something that could be considered as new occurrence.

For a while, Akane contemplated on whether she should respond to Yuuki's underlying question but eventually she decided to leave it to Zero or Kaname to do the honors of explaining to the girl. And so, she ignored the inquiring gaze from Yuuki and dug under her covers – falling asleep the instant her head touches the pillow. She too, like everyone else, was exhausted – the previous charm over at the council and also the stress that follows soon after.

Yuuki stared and sighed, thinking that perhaps it would be better to leave all her questions for later. Obviously, with the battle against Rido Kuran just over – nobody was in the mood to address questions, as weariness and exhaustion these are the only thing on their mind.

A creak sound from the door draws Yuuki's attention to it, and then she found herself staring into her beloved sempai or rather brother from this point onwards.

"Kaname-niisan…"

"Shh…" Kaname raised a finger to his lips, darting his eyes towards the sleeping figure on the bed. The sandy-haired girl had only just fallen asleep; he had no intention of waking her up in the process of getting Yuuki's attention. That girl would be mad if her sleep was rudely disrupted with no apparent reasons…the residents within these walls have quite registered that little detail by now.

Yuuki followed Kaname's line of vision and upon landing on the sleeping Akane – she gulped nervously. Thankful that she did not wake the girl, Akane's reputation of having a nasty temper when being rudely awaken – that little detail she had seen it forefront in prior. Akane had nearly bitten several girls' head off when they purposely disturbed the napping girl in class, and that was just merely an afternoon nap of sort.

If waking Akane up from a nap gets her grouchy enough to glare and stare, Yuuki dared not think of the consequences if one were to wake the girl up mere minutes after the girl had just managed to fall asleep.

Slowly, Yuuki crept out from the room she was in – and ended up having the conversation with Kaname Kuran in an empty guest room situated down the hallway instead.

"Yuuki, the Chairman has decided to close the school off temporary for a few months to get the renovation and repair works done on the campus grounds. We would be heading back to our family home in about three days' time, until then – this would be your temporary room. We will make the re-arrangements again once school resumes and I hoped that you are aware when the new semester begins – you will be transferring into the night-class by then." Kaname decided to start slow, by cluing the girl in on what to expect for the future before getting onto the topic of his relationship with Zero.

"Okay…" Yuuki had responded obediently to Kaname's words, she was now no longer jittery about the idea of staying in the Moon Dormitory. It seems like the two sides of her personality had finally fused and form a new one as she regained her pureblood status of being Yuuki Kuran – sister of Kaname Kuran.

"Yuuki… there's something else I need to inform you." Kaname took a deep breath as he said.

"Was this going to be about what happened between you and Zero?" Yuuki prompted then, surprising the pureblood prince in the process.

"…" Kaname stared, blinking twice as his mind registered his beloved sister's words – and then he nodded warily to it. "How did you know that?"

"I caught the lingering scent of your blood from before, and then Akane mentioned something about you feeding Zero…" Yuuki responded, her tone soft as she glanced down at her feet.

"Yes, that's what happens but it wasn't quite the end of it yet. Zero and I…we've officially bonded with one another." With that, Kaname dropped the news atop of Yuuki like a bombshell and inwardly he was thankful that the girl had no absolute ideas of that initial engagement arrangement between the two of them. At least, there would be no further complications on this issue – saved perhaps for Yuuki getting around to the idea of seeing Zero as his 'partner' in life and vice-versa.

The pureblood prince left Yuuki alone to her thoughts approximately thirty minutes later, then he went on to search for his childhood friend – Ichijo Takuma. He left specific instructions behind that all the questions reserved for him would have to wait till at least eight hours later to be addressed, until then no one is to go knocking on his room's door. Those who ignored his warnings would be severely dealt with at a later stage of time.

Date started: 11/1/2013

Date completed: 15/1/2013

Note: I have readers telling me to put up a profile for the Fujiwara Clan members on my profile wall, which I already did – but just in case nobody sees it. Here's another copy of the OCs in my fic – for the Fujiwara related scenarios.

**Fujiwara Yukari**: mentioned earlier on in the story. Mother to Zero and & Ichiru; from the hunter's branch of the family. Sister to Fujiwara Satoshi and wife to Kiryuu Kaoru (Zero's Father) – Dead by the hands of Shizuka Hiou.

**Fujiwara Haruto**: The **current clan head for the Hunter's Branch**; Cousin to Fujiwara Yukari & Satoshi. Father of Fujiwara Misaki; In charge of accepting Free-lance Hunter's jobs for the fellow Clan members of the Hunter's side. (First mentioned in Chapter 18 or so)

**Fujiwara Satoshi**: Uncle to Zero and Ichiru; Brother to the deceased Yukari and Father to Fujiwara Akemi & Satomi. Based in the Chiba Prefecture; Hunter's Branch side of the family – but now managing a Doujo instead of being a hunter. (1st Appearance: Chapter 29)

**Fujiwara Satomi**: Elder Daughter to Fujiwara Satoshi, Same age with Ichiru & Zero. Hunter in Training; and currently a typical high school girl. Trained in areas of Kendo, helped in the daily management of her family Doujo. (1st Appearance: Chapter 29)

**Fujiwara Akemi**: Mentioned in passing in Chapter 27 during conversation between Sayori & Akane. Would be appearing in later half of the story.

**Fujiwara Shiori:** Mentioned in Chapter 16 of the fic, near victim to a Level E bite. Human Branch of the family.

**Fujiwara Misaki:** Daughter to Fujiwara Haruto – will be entering the fic in Chapter 40 or so. Age would be around 24 to 25.

**Fujiwara Yumi:** **Head of the Vampire Branch Side** of the Family, Pureblood Descent, age unknown but most definitely older than Kaname. Probably same generation as Kuran Rido, Juri and Haruka. Knows Ichijo Asato, but hated to associate with the Council members in general. Mother to Fujiwara Yuka & Sayaka. (First mentioned in Chapter 18 or so, then appeared in Chapter 37 ending portion)

**Fujiwara Yuka**: Daughter to Fujiwara Yumi, Pureblood descent – age around 14. Ability to communicate with Future Self using Dreams. Master to an ex-human by the name of Sawashiro Makoto. Dubbed as the 'willful' daughter by Yumi. (1st Appearance: End of Chapter 37)

**Fujiwara Sayaka**: Younger Daughter to Fujiwara Yumi, and Sister to Yuka. Pureblood Descent, quiet and aloof by nature. Mention in Chapter 37 towards the ending portion.


	41. Chapter 40

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: Woots! 40 Chapters already, and Rido is dead… yay! I hope to finish this story by this year, and let's all hope that it can be done… ^^;; Now, on with the chapter

Chapter 40 – In which Ichiru awakened…

Zero Kiryuu woke from a nice and peaceful slumber when he felt someone rolling into his side, blinking blearily from the sleep – the silver-haired teen glances to his side to find Subaru nesting up to him. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he took in the sight of the two boys, but his smile was gone when his eyes landed upon the figure sleeping peacefully next to Akira.

Kaname Kuran – that sneaky and insatiable git, Zero thought. If looks could kill, Kaname would be ten times dead over by now. The sheer memory of how that man had coaxed him into the idea of consummating their bond in that bathroom caused Zero to flush crimson. Initially, Zero had caved to the request after how miserable Kaname had seemed to be after all that fiasco with Rido – thinking that it would be just a one-time thing.

Lesson learnt here – never to show any form of sympathy for the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan; that sneaky fellow would simply take advantage of it all. In the end, that guy had ended up taking him three times in a row without any breaks in between – until he actually passes out from it all.

'Good Riddance, thank goodness I don't have to see Master Touga later on in the day.' Zero was thinking to him-self, when a slight move of his body caused him to wince from the discomfit feel between his legs.

Slowly and gingerly, Zero inches himself off the bed and then tried his luck out at the idea of walking. One step, two step then three steps – starting out slow and careful, and then slowly quicken up his pace. By the time he reached the wardrobe of the pureblood, Zero was heaving a sigh of relief – thinking that lucky he had a very high tolerance level for discomfit and pain. Else with the soreness he now feels, he highly doubted he could make it out of bed this successfully.

Hurriedly, Zero dug into the wardrobe of the pureblood and 'borrowed' some long sleeves shirt and pant from within. The long trail of hickeys left all over his body by a certain Kaname Kuran was getting too much for Zero to bear the sight of, and so the first thing he did was to cover up all signs of what they had done several hours ago in the bathroom.

Chancing a look towards the direction where the clock was situated by the side of the bed, the time read 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Okay, so he only slept about 8 hours – and waking up at 2.p.m. is still considered early for a vampire though considered a little too late for his liking. Then again, considering the fact that he had not been sleeping during the 48 hours when the Rido fiasco took place – Zero gathered that waking up at 2.p.m. is still acceptable for him.

Glancing over to the three slumbering figures, Zero sighed – thankful that at least the twins were already fast asleep when Kaname and he consummate that bond of theirs. If not, Zero didn't think he could stomach the idea of looking the twins in the eyes later on in the day. Deciding to head out and find out for himself the current situation out there, Zero closed the door carefully behind him – cautious not to wake any of its' occupant from within.

The Moon Dormitory at 2.p.m. was usually quite empty of life, but right now – it was bustling with life. Akane was wide awake already, it would seem – and she's helping Ichijo Takuma out with the task of doing headcount of the night-class members. Distinctively, he heard Akane questioning the green eyed blond vampire something pertaining to the two missing models of the night-class.

"Akane, is there a problem down here?" Zero questioned, as he entered the lounge situated on the second floor of the Moon Dormitory Building.

"Ah… Zero, nice to see you up and about…I would have thought you would have problem climbing out from bed after Kaname-sama is done with you this morning." Akane teased, as she runs her eyes up and down Zero's choice of attire. Long black sleeves button down shirt, and also long pants of the same color – looks like someone did a fantastic job on leaving behind hickey marks and all. How else would Zero be spotted in long sleeves attire in the season of spring, at mid-day some more…

"Akane…would you be teasing about this if you are back in your own time?" Zero started in on the girl warningly, despite the slight hint of pink in his cheeks upon Akane's mention of a certain pureblood's name.

"…Okay, fine … you win. I zipped my mouth shut from this point on." Akane hurried to surrender her hands up in the air, and said.

"Good, now care to fill me in what's the matter here?" Zero repeated his earlier question, this time directing his words to the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory instead.

"It's just that when I took the attendance of the night-class members earlier on, I found Shiki and Rima missing from the room they were in prior to the start of the battle. Then I tried to search the compound of the dormitory, and still I can't find them at all." The green eyed blond seemed to be quite anxious about it all, and Akane was obviously cracking her mind trying to see if she can remember anything from her memory.

"Erm… I believed I saw them leaving the school compound, though I am not exactly sure where they went off to. I should have said something earlier on, but I guess it totally slipped from my mind." Zero said then.

"Huh…? They left the academy? When was that?" Ichijo Takuma hurried to ask.

"When Yuuki and I was busy battling Rido, it would seems." Zero answered, truthfully.

The next thing Akane and Zero saw Ichijo did was to pull out his cellular phone and started to call up Shiki's mobile number, demanding to know the teen's exact location.

"Oh… by the way, our dear Uncle Ichiru was situated downstairs in the entertainment room. Apparently, his condition cannot afford to wait when Makoto brought him over for attention – and so the twins had arranged for him to stay in the entertainment room for 'treatment' or sort." Akane added before Zero could whizz by her.

"I see… and do you happen to know where Fujiwara Yuka is?" Zero asked next, recalling the issue on his agenda that has yet to deal with. On the very top of the list, included the need to meet Fujiwara Yuka.

"She's in the entertainment room with that guard of hers' tending to our dear uncle." Akane responded, before shifting her attention to her cousin whom was obviously pressuring Shiki into coming back with Rima.

"How is he…?" Zero asked, upon his entry into the entertainment room which now served as a temporary bedroom for his twin. A makeshift bed had been created from utilizing the 'sofa-bed' within the very room, itself.

"Zero-sama…" Sawashiro Makoto, the ex-human servant to Fujiwara Yuka started to greet as Zero entered the room.

"Ichiru is progressing quite well, I'll say. The body has started to regenerate by itself when my blood was injected into his veins, waking the vampire genes in him. Probably, the Hiou's blood in him was already at work – but because he wasn't really a vampire then; the regeneration process could not be start on its own." The sound of Fujiwara Yuka came then, keeping Zero updated on his twin's recovery process.

"I beg your pardon, did you just say injected?" Zero blinked, wondering whether or not has he heard wrong. He had thought his brother was bitten and turned, but now Fujiwara Yuka was telling him that his brother was turned by using injection means?

"Well, granted that Ichiru was unconscious when he was brought to me… and required immediate attention. I can't really expect the re-generation process to start by just biting him to 'wake', can I? The fastest way was for him to ingest my blood, but with him knocked out – he can't do that either. So I go by the injection method to start up the genes in him instead." Fujiwara Yuka responded with ease.

Zero was completely speechless by now, he certainly do not know how to react to Fujiwara Yuka's way of informing him that she had wake the vampire genes in Ichiru in order to turn his twin into a vamp. That was exactly like hinting at him that they could very well be vampires in nature just hidden by a layer of human shell or something, the sheer idea of it irked him to no end.

He figured that must have been the Fujiwara's blood in them that made it possible since that was the case with all Fujiwara hunters and humans alike – a bite or ingestion of a blood-related vampire would change them easily and completely, waking up that side of them. And then he frowned, if that is the usual way of how it works – why the hell did he have such a horrible changing process then?

It took him a total of four years to change into a Level D, and half a bottle of blood from Shizuka Hiou to level him up to C-Class Vampire. Lastly, the combination of Kaname's blood and that quarter bottle of Hiou's blood to up him to his current Level B standards…

"Zero, the Kiryuu blood in both of you was the reason behind your horrible changing process. However, you would have an easier time if you managed to get a hold of the blood belonging to any of the Hiou's Clan members." Fujiwara Yuka said then, as though sensing his unasked question.

"What do you mean by that?" Zero questioned aloud, this whole thing is puzzling him to no end.

"The Kiryuu's family history, I heard that Makoto said Ichiru had told you some?" Fujiwara Yuka turned her attention fully onto Zero then, inwardly thinking that Ichiru was probably the twin with the higher level of IQ. Either that or it was just Zero simply refused to crack his mind for the sake of figuring out something of this sort.

"So what if he did mention some of it… what does that has to do with anything?" Zero frowns, still finding it hard to comprehend the meaning behind Fujiwara Yuka's words.

"…Everything, it has a lot to do with everything pertaining to the changing process of your body. The Kiryuu, you might not agree to it – but it is a fact that Mamoru Kiryuu was the black sheep of the Hiou Clan. He was a vampire whom never managed to grow fangs and thus was banished from the house of Hiou. Don't ask me why – I'm no genius.

Anyway, like I'd said before – vampires without fangs are not 'acceptable' in our society. So he was forced to leave home. I'm not sure of the process, but eventually he somehow ended up being a hunter and that started off the legacy of the Kiryuu Clan." Fujiwara Yuka was telling Zero, whereas the listener had on a very strange expression.

"Okay… so, you are saying that the Kiryuu originated from the Hiou Clan and that the ingestion of a fellow Hiou's blood will somehow fixed that genetic err in me and brings on the 'change' process?" Zero started, sounding slight skeptical by the whole issue.

"Yes, well… something likes that."

"Does it have to be Shizuka Hiou's blood or any other members from the Hiou's clan will work the same way?" Zero asked next.

"No it doesn't have to be from Shizuka Hiou, any other members' blood will work the same way but it would have to be from the same branch." Fujiwara Yuka added.

"…May I inquire the owner of that blood you asked Makoto to pass over to me?" Zero questioned next, it was obviously not from Shizuka Hiou since he could recognize from the smell of it.

"Shizuru…"

"Come again…?"

"It came from Shizuru, you know – that lady who used to give you and Ichiru lots and lots of cupcakes whenever Yukari-san brought you two over for a meeting?" Fujiwara Yuka prompted.

"I know who that is; I just don't get how she's related to the Hiou – that's all." Zero gritted out from frustration.

"Ah…that's easy, she was married into our clan." Fujiwara Yuka dropped the news onto Zero's lap with ease.

"…" Zero feels like finding a wall and head-bang him-self, he had absolutely no idea what to think – right now. Knowing Zero probably need some time to clear his thoughts, Fujiwara Yuka left the room for the moment and ventured off for a self-exploration tour around the dormitory building.

"Zero-sama, you have a guest." The sound of Makoto speaking up jarred the silver-haired hunter out from his thoughts, and turned his eyes upon the so-called 'guest' only to find Yuuki standing in the doorway with slight hesitancy on her features.

"Yuuki…" Zero nodded, he had heard from Kaname that Yuuki was already clued in on what transpired between them and since then he had been expecting for the girl to pay him a visit of sort – but he wasn't expecting it to be this soon. He thought Yuuki would at least need a few days before she could finally get the whole picture…

"Neh… Zero, do you happen to have a moment – Can I speak to you for awhile?" The once adopted daughter of Chairman Cross, started – her eyes flicking to the unconscious figure of Ichiru for a brief moment before turning back to Zero.

"Sure." Zero agreed easily, instructing Makoto to let him in once Ichiru had awakened – he left the room with Yuuki in tow.

Ten minutes later, the two of them were out in the woods surrounding the Moon Dormitory Building. It was nightfall now, so there was no need for Yuuki to worry about the strong rays coming from the sun. Having regained her pureblood ancestry heritage now, the sun is no longer that welcoming to her. How Zero could stand being in the sun so long, she could not help but wonder…

Silence hung between them, until Zero decided to take the initiative and kicked off the conversation start.

"Yuuki, what is it that you want to speak with me about?" Zero prompted, despite having a good guess of what's on the girl's mind. Yuuki was still far too easy to be read, as compared to a certain Kaname Kuran.

"Zero…Kaname-niisan has already informed me of the bond and relationship that the two of you now shared." Yuuki decided to cut straight to the point, beating around the bush clearly was not a style of speaking method that she could accustom herself to.

"I see… and…?" Zero prompted, knowing for a fact that Yuuki must have something else to say in relations to 'that' – else she would not be suggesting for them to talk out here in order to ensure privacy for the conversation.

"I have a question for you, and I honestly hope that you could answer me truthfully." Yuuki's words jarred the silver-haired teen back to his senses.

"…Okay, so what is it that you wanted to ask?" Zero asked back in return; inwardly glad that he would not have to deal with Yuuki's whine of 'stealing' Kaname or something of that sort.

"Are you happy?"

The question caught Zero off-guard for a minute, before he throws back another question in return.

"Care to elaborate a little on that question – by asking if I am happy, what exactly are you referring to?"

"I'm referring to what happen between you and Kaname-Sempai. Are you happy with the recent developments and with the idea of being together with him?" Yuuki responded, as she leaned her back against a tree bark directing her gaze to the ground.

Yuuki Cross or rather Kuran now – supposed it was not exactly hard for her to stomach the idea of Zero and her beloved Kaname-Sempai being together. Since, the future trio had proved it to be possible for quite some time now. In fact, she had actually seen how the two of them started out to make peace for the sake of the future trio; and their relationships with one another did improved a great deal as compared to the times before the trio arrival.

Contrary to what most people may think, she was not that blind to all those signs and hints that emitted off the two important male figures in her life over the past few months.

"…" Zero took a minute to organize his thoughts together, thinking back on all the instances whereby he had spend time with the pureblood prince and also the twins. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he mused. "I supposed I could live with the idea of it."

Yuuki took in the sight of Zero smiling and heaved a sigh of relief, before speaking up again. "Well, if you are content with the current situation – then I shan't fret any longer. Granted, I am still a little annoyed by the fact that neither of you had it in mind to notify me earlier but I'll survived."

With that, Yuuki Kuran turned on her heels and made her way back to the Moon Dormitory Building while leaving Zero behind to mull over her words.

"Daddy…!" Zero was on his way back towards the Moon Dormitory, after sending off Fujiwara Yuka and her guard – Sawashiro Makoto when he heard the sound of Akira calling out for his attention.

Inwardly, he was glad that most of the day-class students have already been send home for the term under the Chairman's excuse of major renovation work on campus. If not, after Akira's shrill greeting to him from across the lawn – everybody in the day-class would be up in chaos by the end of today.

"Yes, Akira…? Why are you so excited all of a sudden?" Zero questioned as he crossed the lawn swiftly to reach to the excited boy.

"Uncle Ichiru has awake!"

"What…?! Already…?" Zero sprinted into the building then, not forgetting to pick the boy up in his arms despite his eagerness to get to his twin's side.

"…" The noble class vampires that hung out in the front lounge blinked twice in surprise, when Zero passes them by in a sped of light not even stopping to acknowledge their presence.

"What's the mad rush about?" Aidou Hanabusa questioned aloud.

"Saa…who knows." Ichijo Takuma response was a mere shrug of his shoulders.

Minutes later, Akane was seen chugging down gallons of blood tablets before giving up entirely on the entire idea and made a grab for one unsuspecting Ichijo Takuma. The nobles watched in stunned silence, as Akane wasted no time in biting down hard sinking her fangs into the wrist of their resident Vice-President and then drinks thirstily from it.

Ichijo Takuma blinked in bewilderment as his cousin sapped away at his blood, while the rest of the nobles around them were openly gaping at the scene.

"Akane…why are you drinking from Ichijo…?" Aidou Hanabusa questioned before he could stopped himself.

"I need blood in the system fast, and the blood tablets are quite slow in the effect." Akane throws back, before adding as an afterthought. "Ichiru took a little too much blood from me…"

"Huh…? Ichiru Kiryuu – since when did he became a vampire?"

"Since he was turn by Fujiwara Yuka in an attempt to save him from dying due to excess blood loss." Akane figured the best way was to throw out the pureblood girl's name, there was no way she could explain the entire process without dragging the family history of the Kiryuu into the open and as of current, she wasn't sure if Zero had wanted these aristocrats to know just yet.

Back in the room where Ichiru was situated in, Zero stared after the figure of Akane in a worrying manner. The girl never did once lose her composure after feeding him, but she apparently seemed to be in a rush to replenish her blood loss this time around. Needless to say, the main culprit behind her current predicament is his younger twin.

"…Ichiru, don't you know how to control your bloodlust?" Zero throws at his twin wearily.

"As if you knew how to control yourself when you first fed…" Ichiru throws back evenly at his elder twin.

"…At least I had enough sense in me to prevent myself from sending her into a craze for blood." Zero interjected then.

"I thought that was only because the session was rudely interrupted by Yuuki and me back then." The cool voice of Kaname Kuran inserted itself into the Kiryuu twins' conversation, drawing both their attention to him – then.

Upon his words, Ichiru shot Zero a look that clearly says – 'See… you nearly did the same thing too.'

"Okay, Fine…so how do you feel now?" Zero decided to drop the issue of the 'feeding' and went off to the next thing on his mind.

"Alright I guess, although I had my mind sets upon the notion of dying before but it seems like you would not allowed that to happen just yet." Ichiru responded in a mocking tone of voice, especially towards the end of his statement.

"Correction, I would not care less if you decided to die outside my range of vision – but I'm warning you now never to attempt dying in front of me again. Let alone requesting for me to be the one that sends you down the pathway of death." Zero stated flatly, in response to Ichiru's earlier remarks of sarcasm.

"…" Ichiru Kiryuu watched in silence as his elder twin stalked out of the room, with the twins and the pureblood prince making a move to follow soon after.

"You went a little too far with that statement; Zero was quite worried about your well-being." Yuuki Kuran spoke up then, she had been standing by and observing in silence all these while – and now she finally have a chance to speak.

"Is nosy your middle name?" Ichiru shot back almost instantly following the end of Yuuki's comment.

"Why you…Argh! Anyway, I'm just here to tell you that Maria Kurenai mentioned that she kind of missed seeing you around – and since you aren't exactly dead, it would be good for you to at least give her a call." With that, Yuuki proceeded to stalk out of the room – fuming inwardly.

"Darn that Ichiru to hell! Why must he always talk to me in that manner?! One minute says I'm stupid, next minute call me nosy! Who does he think he is, anyway?! If it's not for that message that Maria Kurenai had wanted to let him know, I won't even bother to speak with him." Yuuki Kuran was muttering to her-self under her breath, when she went literally smack into her friend – Wakaba Sayori.

"Ah…Sorry, I didn't mean to…Yori-chan, what are you doing here?" Yuuki asked, and in which process forgotten all about the Chairman whom is standing next to her friend.

"…Yuuki-chan~~~! How could you ignore your dear PAPA?~~~" Chairman Cross started to wail in a dramatic manner, in an attempt to get the girl's attention.

"…Chairman Cross, I didn't mean to ignore you – I just didn't happen to see you." Yuuki massage the side of her temples when she saw her foster father going into yet another episode of 'whiny' acts.

"So you didn't ignore me on purpose?" Big and teary filled eyes stared up at Yuuki pitifully, causing the two girls to sweat-drop in unison.

"Yes, I didn't ignore you on purpose…" Yuuki answered, automatically.

"Zero, I thought you wanted to speak with the Chairman?" Upstairs on the second storey, Kaname whom just happened to glance out from his room's window – landed his sight upon the scene almost instantly.

"Well, yes – is he here already?" Zero asked, diverting his attention towards the pureblood prince – while splitting half his attention to keep an eye on the twins' packing procedure.

"Yes, he's here and making a fool of himself by playing 'idiot' again." Kaname commented, shaking his head as he took in the scene enfolding downstairs involving the Chairman and Yuuki. Looks like Yuuki had indulged the Chairman's acts again.

"I see… then I think I'd best go downstairs to rescue them all from that idiotic foster parent of mine. Boys, listen to your father while I'm not here – okay?" Zero said, as he directed his words to the twins busy packing their belongings for the 'move' to the Kuran's estate – soon.

"Okay Daddy…" The two boys chortled in unison, flashing a big beam smile towards Zero as they send Zero out from the door.

Date started: 12/1/2013

Date completed: 16/1/2013


	42. Chapter 41

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, I don't have a lot of KanZe but I put in more twins scenes in here. I hope it would do for now.

Chapter 41 – In which the twins visits their 'Father' childhood home…

"Chairman Cross, I do believe we have some issues to be speaking about?" Zero prompted from the front doorway of the Moon Dormitory, putting a stop to his foster parent's act of stupidity.

"Oh… Zero-chan, why did you have to go running off without telling me... Papa is so hurt…" The Chairman was force to stop blabbing nonsensical words when something hits him square on his head.

"Ouch…" Whining slightly, he caught hold of the item that hits him on the head and sighed. It was the empty gun holster belonging to Zero – looks like his foster son had no need to keep this around anymore.

"Eh…? You are leaving Ichiru behind with the Chairman to tend for?" Yuuki gasp aloud at Zero's words, she had assumed that Zero's twin would be traveling along with them.

"Yes, Ichiru was hardly in a condition to be traveling just yet and quite obviously he needs some time alone to sort things out." Zero replied matter-of-factly as he addressed the girl's question.

"Sort things out…?" Yuuki blinked, still had yet to catch on to the meaning behind her silver-haired friend's words.

"Ichiru had come this far with the idea of revenging Shizuka Hiou, I didn't think he had it in him to survive through Rido's attack so… I gathered that he would need some time to think about what he wants to do in future." Zero responded with a sigh, thinking back to the instance whereby his whole mind was crowded with the ideas of getting his revenge on Shizuka Hiou.

He, certainly, had not expected his life to end up where he is – at this moment in time. Getting romantically involved in a pureblood vampire definitely was not on his list of priorities, in fact, killing them all top the list. Now though…he had blurred the lines by sleeping and bonding with one. Inwardly, he was thankful that his embarrassment of being around Kaname Kuran had more or less being overcome by now – if not…

"But… but your Master is residing here with the Chairman as of current! Wouldn't that be a disaster to keep Ichiru here while we're away?! I mean, your Master detest Vampires right?!" Yuuki pointed out trying to keep her voice from pitching upwards – seems like her own sensitive ears could not tolerate her own shrill cries as well.

"Yuuki, I can very much assure you – while my Master detested the idea of being under the same roof with a vampire and it remains a truth that he don't really like Ichiru among the two of us. He would never harm Ichiru – too. Besides, I hardly doubted that with Chairman Cross and Sayori around – he would dare to shoot my twin." Zero shakes himself out from his walk down the memory lane, as he turned his attention back to the panicky girl.

"Huh…? Yori-chan is staying behind with Ichiru too? I thought that it was agreed that the day-class students are not going to be allowed to stay behind during the period of the school closure?" Yuuki asked next, this time with confusion.

"…" Zero flicked his glance over to Wakaba Sayori - that is not a question he could address.

"Yuuki…my job here is to assist Zero, and if he wanted me to guard Ichiru while he's away then that is what I will be doing." Sayori told the flustered girl - patiently.

"Yori… what do you mean by your job here is to assist Zero? And while on the subject, why is Zero being addressed by some members of the night-class as 'Zero-sama'?" Yuuki questioned the doubt from before worming back into her mind now.

"Miyazaki addressed Zero as 'Zero-sama', because her mother belongs to the clan of Fujiwara. Fujiwara has a total of three sides to the family, vampires; humans and hunters. Human belongs to the outer range of the clan; the hunters and the vampires are on par in terms of authority within the family. They keep an eye out on one another's actions, routine meetings are carried out within the family and each branch take turns to organize such meetings. Any form of decision-making need to be bring up for discussion and later on decided upon as a whole team using polling or voting methods so to ensure a just and fair play.

Anyway, I shouldn't be giving you history lessons on the clan – to simplify things, let's just says that both Zero and Ichiru are highly looked upon within the clan of the Fujiwara because of their mother's reputation. That's why they have the right to be addressed with the honorifics of 'sama' behind their names." Sayori summarized everything to its simplest form in order not to confuse Yuuki further.

"Okay… so what about you then? You haven't answer that question for me." Yuuki asked next, what Sayori had just explained to her pertains to the reason behind Risa Miyazaki's actions and not Sayori's own reason.

"My family serves the Fujiwara Clan since the olden days, as of current – my mother served under Fujiwara Yumi, my brother has his allegiance sworn to Fujiwara Akemi whom is also Zero's cousin by the way. My allegiance however was tie to Zero, and therefore my reason to assist Zero in whichever issues he might required my assistance in." Sayori said, throwing out her last secret to the girl – keeping away the information pertaining to her father's allegiance to Fujiwara Haruto and that she actually had to use a tranquilizer dart upon her own father to keep the man from interfering with her actions to protect the twins earlier on in time. The last thing Sayori needs from Yuuki was for the girl to go into frenzy state of apology mood.

Later on around early evening, the family attorney of the Fujiwara Clan finally dropped by for a visit with the legal papers in hand – pertaining to the inheritance for Zero. By the time the legal procedures were all settled, Zero had gained his hands on at least five private estates ground of the Fujiwara Clan.

Among them, three of which are situated in the European region and only two in the Asian district. Atop of the fixed assets, Zero also gained 25% shares of a hot spring resort operated and managed by the 'Fujiwara Corporation' out in the public market. The hot spring resort was situated in Hokkaido and with the 25% shares inherited through his mother's name would entitled him to enjoy a fair share of dividends following the end of each year end period.

"Okay, next up on the agenda – you might not enjoy the fact of it, but well… I have with me some legal procedures for the settling of the Hiou's Clan left behind following the death of Shizuka Hiou as well." The attorney was saying, causing Zero's eyes to snap up at him immediately.

"Sorry, come again – what did you just say?" Zero responded, his eyebrow raising a notch to show just how skeptical he was with the entire thing.

"Like I'm saying, next on my agenda was to brief you on the amount of inheritance left behind relating to the Hiou Clan." The attorney responded, in a deadpanned manner.

"…" Kaname Kuran take a peek from the corner of his eyes at his lover's expression, it was one of incredulity mixed with mild annoyance. Although, he was immensely curious just why exactly would the Kiryuu be eligible to inherit the fortunes for the Hiou Clan – the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan had wisely maintain his silence of it.

"I thought all the inheritances will be going straight into the bank vault of Shizuru-san following the death of Shizuka Hiou?" Zero eventually questioned, the term 'sister' failed to come forth because of his reluctance to admit that sheer fact subconsciously in his mind.

"You could perhaps think of it this way, Shizuru wanted to abide by her late father's will to split the family fortunes evenly among the three children from her grandfather's lineage. In which case, it would relate to Mamoru Hiou or Kiryuu if you prefer to know him in that manner; Masaya Hiou – father to Shizuka and herself and also lastly Masumi Hiou – the current lady of the Kurenai's Clan." The attorney explained.

"… So Shizuru-san draws up a new will after she inherited everything from the Hiou's side?" Zero concluded in a deadpanned manner.

"Exactly…" The attorney agreed easily enough.

"Kaname, please hand me that blasted pen again." Zero sighed aloud as he told the silent pureblood seated by his side on the couch of the lounge, inwardly thankful that no one else was around to witness the legal settlement of his family's inheritance. Last thing he needs was for a certain blue eyed blond aristocrat digging into his overly complicated and ironic family history.

"There you go, Zero…" Kaname smiled a regal smile as he handed over his fountain pen to his silver-haired lover, and watched with a bemused expression as the silver-haired teen glared at the legal paper with some venom before signing upon it grudgingly.

"Thank you and this will be all." The attorney responded with a smile before making his move to depart from the Moon Dormitory Building.

"Careful Akira, don't run … you might fall." Zero called out to the excited boy, when it comes for the time to set off for the Kuran's estate.

"Okay…Daddy!" The boy beamed up at Zero, before zooming to the front again.

"Risa, go after him." Zero added, not really trusting in Akira's promise – since the boy was kind of accident prone.

"You seemed rather accustom to the idea of bossing my flock around now, aren't you?" Kaname commented, taking a peak at his silver-haired lover from the corner of his eyes. How he yearned to hold the man by the waist as they walk side by side to one another, but he knew that would not be wise. They are not quite alone as of current; dozen of eyes were surrounding them during this particular journey.

"Excuse me, Risa was hardly considered part of your flock – I'll have you know, she's residing under the roof of the Fujiwara. That would meant her loyalty was bound to me first, then you." Zero throws back at Kaname, with mild irritation lacing the tone of his voice.

"Okay…okay, no need to flip on me for this. Why are you still so uptight about these things? I am more than certain; whatever transpired between us was no longer a secret to the rest of them. They might have sworn their loyalty oath to me, but you are equally eligible to boss them around – you know?" Kaname responded with utmost sincerity in his speech.

Zero had to refrain from snorting aloud, as though the nobles would agree to let him boss them around. Akatsuki Kain, maybe – but Aidou Hanabusa and Ruka Souen, he highly doubted it. No comments for the two models, and Ichijo Takuma – that one is an oddball so Zero excluded him from typical nobles.

"Honestly, another train ride? What's with your obsession about traveling via trains these days?" Zero's voice was dripped in sarcasm when they finally arrived at the subway train station; they are here to catch the last train heading for their destination. Why the pureblood had refused to take the car and call in the driver to drive them directly to the place – Zero had no idea.

"Well, I'm just indulging in the boys' curiosity of how a train ride would feel. Speaking of which, how did you know that this wasn't the first time I'm taking a train out to my destination area?" The pureblood responded with a shrug of his shoulders, and to keep his supporters more at ease. Kaneme had purposely taken the liberty to book the tickets for the last train out. Since he gathered that the last train scheduled for departure would be the least crowded as compared to the other times of the day.

"Hard to not know anything about it, with the way Aidou was complaining earlier on in the evening." Zero throws back nonchalantly.

"I see." Kaname commented, as he shot a look towards the blue eyed blond aristocrat causing the said vampire to freeze for a minute before his expression soothe over into relief.

The train ride this time was generally shorter as compared to the time they went to Aidou's family resort for vacation. The trip then had took them a whole of nearly eight hours, but this trip to the Kuran's estate only took them approximately three hours time.

The family estate has long been abandoned with no one tending to it on the outside, so it does look kind of bare and unkempt. Inside the house though, was still presentable enough. Well, at least there have not been any cobwebs left hanging around yet. The furniture has all been covered by large white cloth to prevent dust from getting onto them. This was the first time in history since Kaname was taken under the wing of Ichijo Asato to be stepping foot in here.

"Yuuki, welcome back to our childhood home…" Kaname said, as he takes the lead in stepping over the threshold first.

"…Okay, this place officially needs some housekeeping." Akane allowed her eyes to roam the area briefly before commenting – then again, nobody has been stepping foot in here since eight years ago. Therefore, it would only be right for the house to be engulfed with stale air.

"Indeed." Kaname agreed the air in the house was stale and definitely need to be air out.

Under the command of the resident pureblood leader, the cohort of vampires whom had ventured out here to this particular estate started to get down working on the housekeeping chores within their means of handling. For starters, it was the basic procedure of opening up all the windows and doorways of the house allowing fresh air to sweep through the entire area.

"Akane, can I trust you to take charge of the lot down here while I bring Zero and Yuuki with me on a walk-through of the house to familiarize them-selves around here?" Kaname spoke up then, catching the attention of the eldest among the future trio.

Judging from the short conversation with the twins earlier on in the day when Zero was away conversing with the Chairman, Kaname was willing to bet that the trio would at least been here before. Though they might not be coming here on frequent occasions but they should still be familiar with the layout of the house – in general.

"Sure, I can do that and the boys can help too." Akane nodded in response to Kaname's request, and the two boys nodded in unison following the end of Akane's statement as well.

"Right, Takuma – you shall assist Akane in controlling the lot of them." Kaname added, taking into consideration that Aidou might not be that willing to obey Akane's instruction.

"Of course, you can count on me to keep Aidou in line!" The green eyed blond vampire beamed in response.

"Good." With that Kaname left with Yuuki and Zero in tow, as he showed them around the house.

"So boys… how about make your-selves useful by removing those shades off the furniture?" Akane suggested, directing her words to her siblings while the rest of the nobles bustled around with the task of airing out the house.

The tour around the house took only about forty-five minutes, and not trusting the rest of the nobles with the housekeeping task – Zero had purposely ignored Kaname's attempt at trying to steal a private moment with him and went straight back to the front hall.

"Daddy…did we do a good job here?" Akira asked, as he ran straight into the figure of his young 'Daddy'.

"Hm..m…? I don't know, why don't you tell me what you have done to help Akane – first?" Zero prompted, taking in the scene of Ruka Souen wiping the tables and ornaments in the room using a wet rag of sort.

"We helped to remove the white shades draped over the furniture!" Akira piped up, eager to receive some praise from Zero for his work done.

"Well then, you did well – I supposed. Now why don't you boys help Daddy in tidying up the rooms? I am sure your uncles and aunts would be able to do a good job out here by them-selves." Zero suggested, inwardly counting and making a mental list of how many rooms he would need to tidy up for the number of occupants here.

"Yes, Daddy – we would help." Subaru responded, making the decision on his younger twin's behalf.

"Good, now come along with me then." Zero instructed, and the two boys followed dutifully behind him.

"Zero, was there anything that I could help with?" Kaname then interjected, not wanting to be left out from all these 'bonding' moments with the twins and all.

"Yes, Zero – I'll help too." Yuuki chipped in next, she also do not wish to be the only one standing around doing nothing. Offering to help the nobles was out of the question, they would no doubt simply tell her to stand aside and wait until they are done.

"In that case, Yuuki – can you take charge of cleaning up the kitchen? Akane, you will handle the bathrooms – and while at it, keep Ichijo out from there. He would be more of a nuisance than a helping source in the bathroom." Zero said, clearly remembered the incident that took place the other time in the bathroom with that Vice-President of the Night-Class.

Akane smirked when she noticed her cousin flinched under the warning gaze of Kaname Kuran, Ichijo Takuma nearly cried a tear from relief when his childhood friend finally had it in him to shift the gaze elsewhere. The twins meanwhile snickered upon the sight of their Uncle Ichijo being unsettled by their parents' words and stares.

Upon receiving a nod from Kaname's direction, Zero wasted no time in taking charge of the situation – leading the whole house-keeping process by issuing out precise and clear orders for all to follow.

"Risa, you will assist Ichijo in tidying up the Study and Library of the estate. In process, make a list of every book available in the two areas and afterwards re-arrange the books on the shelves if necessary. I do not want the kids to get their hands on unsuitable reading materials in there." Zero instructed, and for the rest of the nobles – he simply told them to busy themselves with the task of wiping everything in sight clean. That should be easy enough for them to handle without any cock-ups in between.

"What about me then?" Kaname asked, it seems like everyone has already gotten something to busy themselves with – saved from him. Therefore, he was quite curious to see what Zero would have in mind for him to be doing.

"You will be listing out the numbers of rooms required for use, and also to allocate them. There are far too many rooms in here, and I certainly do not believe all of them are to be put to usage at this current point of time. Therefore to save time, you are going to list those requiring immediate attention out to me." Zero stated flatly as he shifted his attention to the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan.

Unlike Yuuki, the silver-haired teen has no confidence in the man's housekeeping abilities and would very much like to prevent said vampire from screwing up his job.

In the end, it was arranged in the following manner: Yuuki and Akane would be sharing a room, this was after taking in the consideration of Yuuki might not be accustom to sleeping in a foreign place alone. Despite the house being her childhood home, she had been away for far too long and when she was young – the only place she had stayed in was the underground room with no windows to it. Now with the threat of Rido gone, there was no need for Yuuki to be hidden from sight anymore – let alone to let her go back to that underground room.

Moreover, Kaname gathered Yuuki might probably be more at ease if there was someone rooming in together with her. A quick look at the number of female vampires they had brought along to the estate finally had Kaname fixing his eyes on his future adopted daughter. Ruka and Seiren would be stiff around Yuuki; and Risa – Yuuki would be uncomfortable around. Akane seems to be the best candidate among all, and needless to say Yuuki and Akane get along pretty well judging from the past few months.

Aidou would no doubt be sharing a room with his cousin, Akatsuki Kain and Ichijo Takuma getting a room for his own use seeing as Shiki was not around for the time-being. The twins would be sharing a room, obviously and then Ruka would be getting a room to herself. Risa and Seiren stayed together, since they will be taking their turns in the shift duty of guarding the house on routine basis.

Zero although was rather skeptical about the boys staying on their own, but was forced to let it go after Subaru and Akira both expressed the wish to get their own room during the period of their stay here. The boys' insistence of getting their own room was of course indulged by a very satisfied pureblood prince, because he was also quite eager to be sharing a room with his beloved Zero without any possible disruption.

Akira and Subaru shared a common look between them-selves, and then hurry to run off before they could burst out into laughter at the 'satisfied' look in their 'Father' eyes when he agreed to their request of wanting to get a room for their own use instead of bunking in with their young parents.

"Did you see that?" Akira asked, stifling a giggle as he looked at his twin.

"Yes, Father couldn't have been more obvious – if it wasn't for his 'image' I would say he would be spotting on a Cheshire-like grin now." Subaru responded to his twin's words, in a tone laced with dry humor.

"Oh boy… Daddy would be mad tomorrow…" Akira said next, wondering if his 'Daddy' would be seen out of bed tomorrow with a limp or not.

"…Akira, our parents' sexual life is not a topic for discussion. They would flip if they knew of it." Subaru commented in a deadpanned manner, shooting Akira a look that clearly says 'You are asking for trouble'.

"Still, aren't you curious whether or not the number of siblings for us would increase?" Akira pressed on, and Subaru had to fight against his urge to knock his twin out cold.

"For the last time Akira, I do not wish to hear that! As for the possibility of having other siblings, aside from Akane who was obviously adopted by them. I honestly cannot say for certain, but I do know – it won't be happening anytime soon. I do not think Daddy would agree to the idea of it yet, and Father would probably rather wait until his relationship with Daddy is more stable before bringing up the idea at all."

With that said Subaru eagerly escaped from his twin and decided to go into the kitchen and helped his Aunt Yuuki out. Anything to get away from Akira at the moment, even if it meant he would have to be sticking to that clumsy aunt of his for the rest of tonight.

"Honestly, Akira – I thought you had better sense in you to not go snooping around in 'their' affairs." Akane warned from behind, causing the boy to yelp in surprise.

"Akane…but it's kind of fun to see them threading so carefully around one another initially, and then slowly warming up to one another's presence. We missed out all that fun, because by the time we were born – their relationship was practically iron-clad and unshakable." Akira was saying causing Akane to roll her eyes in response.

"Of course, I hardly think they would be ready for parentage if their relationship was still threading on careful grounds. Apparently, their adopting me was just the initial step and really, why am I telling you all these anyway? Now off you go, shoo… I need to clean this area. Go and entertain yourself with that Nintendo Game or something." Akane muttered aloud, shooing Akira off as she turned her attention back to the task at hand – mopping the floor.

The whole cleaning process took them around a total of four hours to complete, and seeing as there's practically nothing to eat around there. Akane had to sacrifice her sleeping hours, and take both Aidou Hanabusa and Akatsuki Kain out on an errand to get them fresh food supplies to last for the week when dawn breaks. Needless to say, it ended up with Aidou complaining about the hot weather out there and thus pissing Akane off in the process.

"Stop whining, if you think the sun at eight in the morning is hot – you should try venturing out at noon. That's a killer! Besides, if it was not for the fact that there are just too many things to get this morning – I would not have resort to bringing out helpers, and could be very fast in my errand running.

Now though, with all your whiny episodes and stopping for ice-cream and all that random things done on the trip, it has slowed the whole process down. So why don't you stop your whine and hurry the hell up so we could get back in there before the sun becomes scorching hot for the two of you to cope with?!" Akane snap, her temper gaining the upper hand of her with all the lack of sleep creeping in on her – too.

"See…I told you, Hanabusa… you never do learn your lesson, don't you?" Akatsuki throws out to his sullen cousin, and said.

"…" The blue eyed blond trudged unwillingly behind the sandy-haired girl, inwardly wondering why on earth his beloved Kaname-sama did send him out instead of just getting Ichijo Vice-President to go along with Akane. Obviously, that would have prevented his fate of being sniped at by the girl in front of him.

Inside the house, Ichijo Takuma frowned as he turned and asked his childhood friend. "Kaname, is it really wise to send Aidou out with Akane? The two of them don't really get along … I'm sure you are aware of that."

"Akane obviously need an extra set of hands with all the groceries that she will be getting in here, and not to forget the ready-made food for our consumption. Currently, Zero is busy sorting through the list of books in the library and he had the twins with him. Yuuki had a knack of getting herself into trouble, sending her out alone with Akane – is not really a wise move at all.

I obviously need you here to help me sort out the issues following the wiping out of the council, and Seiren – I've already send her out to look for Shiki and Rima. Ruka, I need her to keep an eye out on Yuuki and Risa is helping Zero. The only other two possible candidates to send with Akane would be Akatsuki and Aidou, and I'm quite certain Akane can handle Aidou's episodes quite well." Kaname analyzed his decision in a logical manner, before he shifted his attention back to the task at hand and in process, drawing Takuma back into their previous discussion of what to do with the lower ranking official of the council.

With the death of Ichijo Asato and over 80% of the council members – it became apparent that a regrouping and restructuring of the council would be in order. The lower ranking officials were all in a panicky manner now, and not only that – many of the noble clan head had been notified of Kaname's decision in wiping out the council members and they were all up in chaos now.

Among them included one panicky Maria Kurenai whom immediately bustled off to inform her parents' of the drastic situation when she used her powers to check things out at the council. The sight of Kaname Kuran slaying off the members of the council had her panting and heaving in fear and panic as she wondered what exactly was going on in that person's mind.

Date started: 14/1/2013

Date completed: 17/1/2013


	43. Chapter 42

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: I would have KanZe in here, I promised… and this chapter Shiki made a re-appearance.

Chapter 42 – The first step taken to build a future…

Zero Kiryuu had just managed to send the twins off to their room for a nap of sort, and instructing for Risa to keep an eye on them. A quick glance to the clock situated atop of the work desk of the Kuran's Study, told him that it would be noon soon. Akane had long arrived back from the supermarket about an hour ago, and was now napping in the room she would be sharing with Yuuki.

Closing his eyes briefly for a second, Zero allowed his heighten sense to guide him to where Kaname was. Eventually, the silver-haired guardian found the pureblood staring out at the window in their 'shared' room. Yes – they are sharing a room now, much to Zero's discomfit.

"Kaname, you have been staying awake for far too long. Your body need to rest, you know?" Zero interjected flatly, when he entered the room he was due to share with the former.

"Zero…I could say the same for you too." Kaname replied, as he reached a hand out to pull his silver-haired lover into his embrace.

Inhaling the scent of the lavender smell shampoo from the top of Zero's head, Kaname sighed in contentment. He was finally free from the night-mare that has been plaguing him for years, Rido Kuran and Ichijo Asato were both gone now. All his assets were now rightfully back in his own control; he would have no need to bow down to anyone else in future.

"Ooi, Kaname Kuran – Don't you dare to fall asleep on me just yet…" Zero started in warningly.

"Why…?" Kaname asked sounding husky as he buried his head into the shoulder's of his mate.

"Because you need to step into the shower, and get your-self cleansed up. I am not having you on my bed until you are done with your shower for today." Zero said in a steel-like manner, before he removed himself forcefully from the pureblood's embrace.

"…Still, that was actually my bed you are hogging on – right now." Kaname arched an eyebrow up in response to Zero's words.

"Ok fine, I amended my statement – you are not joining me in bed until you are done with the shower." Zero huffed in annoyance as he took a seat on the left side of the bed, glaring at the pureblood as he throws his words across.

"I didn't know you are so particular about showering before bed…" Kaname mused aloud, seems like there's always something new that he learnt about the silver-haired teen every time they interacted with one another.

"So now you know!" Zero throws back in a flat-like manner, totally unfazed by the pureblood's teasing remarks.

"Okay… fine, anything for you – my dear. If you want me to take a shower, that's what I would be doing. Perhaps, you would like to join me in there?" Kaname suggested, only successful in his attempt to irk Zero further.

"Absolutely not, there's no way I am going to join you in the showers." Zero blatantly refused to oblige Kaname's request of taking a shower together, he had yet to forget that was exactly how they had ended up consummating their bond to one another – several days ago.

Granted he had been somehow willing the other time it happen, but there was no way he would allowed another attempt of the same deed being done in the bathroom – again. That one time memory was enough to last him for the entire lifetime.

Kaname Kuran watched in amusement as his lover's face turned beet red upon his suggestion before he was roughly shoved into the open doorway of the bathroom by the embarrassed teen; following suit was the 'slam' of the bathroom door – separating them both from one another. Not wanting to let the pureblood have a chance to pull him into the bathroom again, the silver-haired hunter wasted no time in his act of leaving the room completely – going off to check on the twins instead.

Upon the sound of his bedroom's door slamming shut, Kaname Kuran allowed a rich sound of laugh to emit from his throat. Looks like he won't be getting 'it' tonight, not when his newly acquired 'wife' character in his life was still feeling embarrassed of it all together. Oh well, he supposed he could still afford to wait a few more days for another round with Zero. Pushing the silver-haired teen now would only ended up with nasty effects; he would have to go slow about it then.

Shiki Senri awoke to the first sound of his mobile phone blaring alive, a glance towards the bed where his best friend was still peacefully in slumber. Shiki pressed the phone gadget to his ear as he answered the call.

"Yes, Ichijo Vice-President – what's the matter now? Why are you calling me at freaking 9.a.m. in the morning?" The lanky model asked, sounding really annoyed by the fact that his sleep was rudely interrupted.

"Where are you now? Kaname sends Seiren out to locate you two, but she can't find either of you when she reached that hotel that you said." Ichijo Takuma sounded slightly worried on the other end of the line, and Shiki took a moment to recall the incident from the night before.

"Ah…Sorry, I forgot to inform that we would not be in last night. We got a call from the agent informing us to do a photo-shoot after we hang up on you, yesterday afternoon. It must have slipped my mind to call you back about it." Shiki answered, meekly while Ichijo Takuma let out an air of exasperation through the phone.

"Gees, text me the address of that hotel – I'll go over and get the two of you now!" The green eyed blond muttered aloud, before hanging up on the model.

"…" Shiki Senri stared at the phone and blinked several times, before giving up entirely on the idea of sleeping. Turning to his side, where his best friend slept soundly – Shiki Senri reached a hand out and gently shook the girl awake.

"Rima…wake up and get ready, Ichijo's on his way over to pick us up – you can sleep again when we reaches the Kuran's estate." Shiki Senri told his best friend, Touya Rima.

Back in the Kuran's estate, Zero Kiryuu was in the midst of getting 'breakfast' ready when he received a call from Fujiwara Sayaka informing him that there would be a meeting pertaining to the discussion of Fujiwara Haruto's fate – that very night in the Kyoto's estate and that it would be best for him to be present for the event.

"Is there a need for Ichiru to be present?" Zero asked, setting the phone call function on speaker mode so he can prepare the breakfast same time as he chat with the caller on the other end of the line.

"No, not exactly – but he may come if he wishes to. The main thing here is – you must be there. Also, we have decided on the person to be his guard – can you let me know whether he's coming before the meeting commences tonight?" The caller had kindly requested.

"I'll call you back in five." That's all Zero had said before he proceeded to call up Wakaba Sayori to inform Ichiru of the matter, and get back to him as soon as possible.

Meanwhile in the Cross Academy, Kaien Cross was equally vexed by the recent happenings. The hunters Association were obviously in a state of shambles, and he personally had a dozen of crimes being piled atop of his head. Issues relating to bringing in vampires into a public school and failure to keep their existence a secret so on and so forth. With the Chairman of the Association dead and the Vice-Chairman on the total opposite side of his co-existence ideals – and he nearly got arrested following the end of the battle too.

Reason why he could still be here though, he supposed he had to thank his lucky stars. The plot of land which Cross Academy was built upon, its ownership belongs to a fellow Fujiwara Clan member. With the presence of Fujiwara Yuka and Fujiwara Yumi with them back then, the hunters whom came under the lead of the now dead Chairman of the Association can't really do much. Operation of the school might befall on the shoulders of Kaien Cross, but the landlord was the Fujiwara – and not to forget the funding behind the school's operations were the Kuran.

The academy might have initially been the headquarter buildings for Hunters Association but so what?! It still does not changes the fact that the piece of land the building was built atop falls under the ownership rights to the Fujiwara Clan, the key-word here is the self-governing rule for the said clan members. Kaien Cross really had it in him to show his respect for these Fujiwara members – they got all the loopholes checked and covered. They even send in legal people to explain to the Vice-Chairman of the Association – pointing out a dozen valid reasons why Kaien Cross could not be penalized under this situation.

The best part here – the Fujiwara took back the land for private use, and still allowed Chairman Cross to run the school. In fact, the school could still be named Cross Academy – the only amendments made were that they are going to merge a part of their current private academy into the school faculty. Hence, the workers were called in as soon as the disputes with the association were being settled – to rebuild the academy. The grounds would of course be expanded, and academic building to heighten and expand in classroom size in order to fit the new onslaught of students that would be joining in from next term onwards.

In terms of the school dormitories wise, aside from the current Sun and Moon Dormitories. A new dormitory building would be built in order to host more students in the campus ground – and the name for that new dormitory would be titled the 'Star' Dorm. Now Kaien Cross was staring at the layout blueprint for the literally new campus in awe, all the facilities in the academy had been replaced under the generosity of the new investor – Fujiwara Yuka.

"Chairman Cross, don't mind me saying this – but care to close your mouth? It's unbecoming for you to gape and stare like a fish." Ichiru Kiryuu spoke up, snapping the man's attention back to the silver-haired teen seated on the sofa couch of his residence area.

"Aww… Ichi-chan, don't be so nasty to me like how Zero-chan is…Can't you treat me with a little respect?" Chairman Cross started yet another stupid episode of his whine, only successful in getting a glare from the silent teen.

"Care to address me by my actual name and not that ridiculously stupid nickname that you deemed it suitable to bestow upon me?!" Ichiru snarled, wishing very much that he could just strangle that man and be done with it all.

"…" Wakaba Sayori stood on the outside of the door, wondering if she should step in now or not. She had just ended a call with Akane, and was going to seek permission to leave for a short period of time and also to inquire on Ichiru's thoughts pertaining to the issue. Still, she hesitated about the idea of stepping through the threshold – she had no inclination to be caught in between one of the Chairman's dramatic act to 'soften' up Ichiru, again.

"Wakaba Sayori, why the hell are you standing out there like a wooden block?" Ichiru Kiryuu's sudden voice caused the hazel brown haired girl to snap her eyes up in shock.

"I apologized; I was caught up with my thoughts." Sayori responded, in a monotone manner.

"So care to enlighten me behind your reason for coming over?" Ichiru prompted, he knew Sayori was here to supervise him under his elder twin's order. Why though, he had no idea – perhaps Zero just feared that he might be suicidal hence the girl's presence to supervise him.

"There's a meeting, and Zero required my presence at the site. Also, he said to ask if you are coming along for the trip. He says – the elders had decided on a suitable guard candidate for you, and if you are not going over – they would be sending the person directly here to report for duty." Wakaba Sayori said, calmly – directing her words to the younger Kiryuu twin.

"…I'll go, tell them to save the trouble. When and where would be the meeting taking place?" Ichiru questioned then.

"It will be taking place tonight at 7.p.m. over at the Kyoto's estate…" Sayori answered, honestly.

Ichiru Kiryuu then proceeded to stand and make a move to leave the area; the time now though is only 10 a.m. but the distance from here to Kyoto would take him probably about 5 hours. By the time, he reached Kyoto – it would be around 3.p.m. in the afternoon if he set off now. But he still needs a shower before setting off, and probably some food in his system first. With a sigh, he decided to get himself ready for the trip.

"Ichiru…?" A questioning tone came from the ex-hunter seated behind his table, with the blueprint drawing still in front of him.

"I'm taking a shower, and then probably fix something up for myself in the kitchen. Was there anything you need?" Ichiru throws over his shoulders at the lunatic Chairman who seemed to have decided to one-sidedly 'adopt' him too.

"Some coffee might be good…" The Chairman interjected, it was too early for his lunch anyway.

"I'll have Wakaba bring it over in a short while." That was all Ichiru had said before heading for the direction of his 'room' to get ready for a shower.

Zero placed the 'breakfast' in front of Akane, whom had just emerged from upstairs as he joined the girl at the dining table about the same point of time.

"Good morning…" Akane greeted as she took a sip out from her glass of orange juice.

"Good morning, Yuuki's still sleeping?" Zero asked, seeing as Akane now shared the same room with the ex-female guardian. Speaking of which, he honestly hoped that the Chairman had in mind to choose another guardian for the duty when school re-opened. Yuuki could hardly qualify for the role now that she's awakened to her pureblood heritage and Akane could only handle it for short-term period.

"Yes, obviously her body clock had converted itself into the nocturnal lifestyle of the vamps already." Akane replied, suppressing a yawn as she said so.

"Akane, there's no school for you today – you can sleep in if you want." Zero noted the dark circles under the girl's eyes, and commented.

"I know… but old habits die hard. I'll just sleep in earlier tonight, the past 120 hours hasn't exactly been great for me." Akane responded dryly.

"I understand; it hasn't been the best for me to cope with – either." Zero conceded.

Breakfast continues on in silence for a while, before Zero brought up the issue that he's going to have to travel into Kyoto and would like Akane to keep the twins entertained while he's away.

"Ah… meeting eh, I recalled you used to hate those meetings back in my time era." Akane mused, losing herself in a memory lane.

"Did I ever bring you trio along for the meeting there?" Zero asked, curiosity lurking in his tone of voice.

"You sure did, but your main intention is to bring me along. Seeing as how you had intended for me to succeed your position within the clan in future – and of course, you wanted to keep the twins away from all that 'shitty' business as you dubbed them out to be. The twins, on the other hand, tagged along with us on the trip because they didn't want to leave your side at that point of time. But that changes as soon as Yuka-sama landed her eyes on them both, poor boys… ended up being squished by her each time they saw her in person." Akane giggled as she recalled those times she had to end up rescuing them from Fujiwara Yuka's grasp.

Zero sweat-dropped upon Akane's mention of the boys having been subjected to one of those crush-like hugs from Fujiwara Yuka, personally though – Ichiru and himself were equal victims of that fate. Thankfully, Fujiwara Yuka was relevantly younger back then and the squishes weren't all that bad for them to endure. His face took on a dark expression when he recalled the times that girl had tricked him into calling her 'Yuka-nee…', those were the carefree days prior to his start of the hunting lessons with Master Touga.

'Master Touga…' Zero allowed a sigh to escape from his lips upon the thought of his master; he wondered briefly whether his master would still want to have anything to do with him now that his vampire status falls under one of those aristocrats level. His master detested vampires in nature, and evidently disliked dealing with members of the Fujiwara Clan in general.

Now that he had come into his inheritances and his families backgrounds both coming into the light, he wondered if Yagari Touga – the veteran hunter would still want to maintain their 'teacher-student' relationship at all. Not only was he related to the Fujiwara Clan now but also to the Hiou Clan – and to top it off; he was now officially involved with Kaname Kuran. If all the shitty issues pertaining to the Hiou Clan and Fujiwara Clan failed to put any strain between his relationships with his Master, getting himself involved with the pureblood Kuran heir would most certainly pose a problem to his already estranged kind of relationships with Yagari Touga.

"So when are you setting off for Kyoto?" Akane's question jarred Zero out from his train of thoughts.

"I'll leave by noon, before the boys' wake – can you help me inform Kaname of where I've gone off to? Also, I'm taking Risa along for the trip." Zero directed his words to Akane then, as he started bustling around the kitchen to clear up the dishes for the breakfast usage.

It seems like both of the Kiryuu siblings seem to have the same idea in mind and that is to travel to Kyoto using the subway train as their form of transportation. Although, they set off from their respective venues at different timings – but it would appeared that their twins' connection are still in sync with one another. Since, both Zero and Ichiru had apparently ended up meeting one another on the train platform when they gotten off from different end of the train.

"Ichiru…"

"Zero…"

Lingering one step behind each Kiryuu sibling, Wakaba Sayori and Risa Miyazaki exchanged a nod of acknowledgement.

"Let's get a move on – then." Zero stated in a clipped tone of voice, as he started leading the way out from the subway station. Ichiru mirrored his twin's actions soon after, and lastly was joined by the two female 'guards' of theirs as the group of four made their way towards the Fujiwara estate in Kyoto prefecture.

The Fujiwara estate situated in Kyoto, Japan was really huge in terms of it's' land space. The estate itself is a traditional Japanese Style house, and between the wooden gates and the house itself was a garden of sort. Like any other Fujiwara estate, the estates are lined with beautiful maple trees.

"Good Evening, Zero-sama and Ichiru-sama – we have been expecting your arrival." The servants of the estate greeted the Kiryuu twins upon their stepping over the threshold.

Neither Zero nor Ichiru said anything in response, but they do however send a nod of acknowledgement back to the maid that had greeted them upon their entry into the place. The entire place was bustling with activities, as though one would be expecting a party to begin anytime soon. However, they both knew – tonight would be the negotiation meeting.

"Zero-sama; Ichiru-sama – kindly follow my lead to the preparation room." The sudden sound of a fellow maid startled them out from their thoughts, as they shifted their attention to the owner of the voice.

"… Lead the way then." Sighing inwardly, Zero beckoned for the maid to start moving. Preparation room… looks like a change of attire was in order then; and Ichiru's eyebrow started twitching upon the mention of entering the 'preparation room'.

"Honestly, is there really a need for such hassle?" The younger twin could not help but questioned.

"I apologized for the inconveniences caused, but do understand that this is for the sake of differentiation." The maid responded meekly.

"Ichiru, this is not your first time here – you know the drills." Zero interjected, successfully bringing a stop to his younger twin's rant of the hassle of needing to change attire just for a 'stupid' meeting of sort.

Fujiwara Clan held family meetings every quarter of the year, and occasionally emergency family meeting – like today. The main reason behind the regular meetings were to bring up issues that required 'decision-making' up for discussions; for instances – when Ichiru approached Fujiwara Satoshi with the proposition; and also the actions to be partake if Fujiwara Haruto was indeed found guilty of conspiracy with the hunter's association. A meeting has been held then, and the decision to join force with Kaname Kuran in the Cross Academy battle was also decided during that particular meeting.

Of course, Zero had not been present for the meeting then – all he did was to call up and supplied further information pertaining to the possibility of the Association going into cahoots with the Council. Placing extra emphasis on the issue of Fujiwara Haruto's share in the entire fiasco, and then he leave it as that – allowing his Uncle Satoshi and Fujiwara Yumi to debate all they want during the discussion with the rest of the elders in the family.

Eventually, it was decided that the Fujiwara Clan members would only partake in the battle against Fujiwara Haruto; and also to aid the poor defenseless day-class students. Anything outside of that range would not be their duties to handle; unless the enemies were dumb enough to approach them with an attack. That would be another case already; because an attack inflicted during the act of self-defense would be different to the act of taking initiative to attack during the battle.

Coming back to the present situation, Zero and Ichiru allowed the servants to help dress them up in the traditional Japanese clothing – a dark blue Kimono and later a Hakama with the same shade over it. Neither of the Kiryuu twins are fans for such clothing, because they find it a hassle to be dressed in such attires. However, seeing as they are now here not for social visit but to attend a formal meeting of sort – they would have to abide by the rules set by the family since ancient times.

Risa Miyazaki and Wakaba Sayori, they are the lucky ones – since they need not change their attires to suit the meeting atmosphere. They are, after all, merely standing by the side to observe the meeting and prevent any bloodshed from occurring. For obvious safety reasons, anyone whom entered the meeting area are only allowed one personal guard to go in with them.

In Ichiru's case, because he was previously missing for a whole of 4 years – his personal guard was only picked out recently and had yet to report officially for duty.

The guards or personal assistant to a fellow Fujiwara Clan high rank members are normally picked out from the four families that served under the Clan. In the olden days, there are more to pick from – but these days in the modern era; they are mainly down to the four – Wakaba, Sawashiro, Mishima and also lastly the Matsushita.

Members from the above mentioned four families usually do inter-marriage, so as to maintain the secrets of the Fujiwara Clan. For instances, Sayori's mother was from the Mishima Family and her brother's betrothed was from the Matsushita. Usually, the arrangement of union would be decided once the person in question reaches the age of 18 – and Sayori still had a year ahead before she would be subjected to the same fate as well.

Risa Miyazaki is a special case, while she is currently playing the role of a 'guard' to Zero – she is also considered a minor member of the clan. After all, her mother used to be a Fujiwara to boot – despite being originating from the human side of the family. However, she is also a Miyazaki and that family name of hers' opens her up to the option of obeying orders from another – in her case, the Kuran Prince. This is the reason why Ichiru would still need to be allocated with a guard of his own, instead of just making do with the idea of 'sharing' with Zero.

While Zero and Ichiru are busy waiting around for the time to pass, and for the meeting to start in the estate; back in the Kuran estate – the newly awoken twins are busy entertaining their Aunt Yuuki in a game of Monopoly. That is, of course, under the specific order of their young Father who is busy discussing something with their beloved Uncle Ichijo.

"Neh… Akira, what do you reckon Zero and Kaname-sempai is up to?" Yuuki asked, while she was absolutely sick of the idea of being kept in the dark. Unlike the situation with Zero, she does not have the guts to march up to Kaname Kuran and demanded for an answer out from him.

"Whatever it is, Aunt Yuuki – you have no need to worry yourself over it." Akira responded easily, he might not know what exactly his young parents were busying with – but he had an inkling of it.

There is a high chance that his young Father was discussing the issues pertaining to the council with Uncle Ichijo, brainstorming on the possible reasons to be feeding to the lower ranking council members that escaped from the fate of 'death' and also to the other noble clans – to explain his reasoning to wipe out 80% of the Vampire Council.

As for his 'Daddy' – according to Akane; he had went over to Aunt Yuka's place and that would mean he's off to a routine meeting of sort taking place within the Fujiwara Clan. So there is a very high possibility that it had something to do with the 'punishments' for Fujiwara Haruto; the election of the next Clan Head for the Hunter's Branch of the family and also the choice of a guard for his survived Uncle Ichiru?

Yuuki sighed, if she failed to get a response out from Akira – she was hardly going to try anything on Subaru. The elder twin was a complete replica of how Zero used to be like when he was first brought in by the Chairman, clammed up like a shell when he does not feels like revealing anything to her.

Over in the library, a certain blue eyed blond aristocrat was forced to help Akane in the task of re-organizing books atop of the shelves.

"Why did you get me in to help anyway? Wouldn't Ruka or my cousin be a better choice for it?" Aidou Hanabusa could not help but asked.

"While that may be true, but I want you away from Yuuki. I do not want you to blabber anything to her. Heaven forbids if she were to know of Kaname-sama decision to slay over half of the Vampire Council's population, and also Zero's reason for being away from the estate as of current. Knowing her, if she failed to get a response out from Akira and Subaru – her next best option would be you." Akane kindly explained her reasoning to the fidgety blond.

"And why is that so?" Aidou throws back in indignation.

"Because she knew you would caved in to her request or rather demand. Akatsuki have better sense in him to let her know anything, whereas Ruka is obviously the type that follows no one's order but Kaname-sama's order. Moreover, with all the glares Ruka used to direct towards Yuuki – I highly doubt Yuuki would dare to ask her anyway." Akane further explained her reasoning to get the blond in helping her out with the task to re-organize the books in the library.

Upon the end of Akane's explanation, Aidou Hanabusa fell silent and started his routine sulking episode. To which, Akane merely rolled her eyes at his antics and simply continued her task in categorizing the books and then re-arrange them back on the shelves. In the first place, she was not expecting much from the blond to begin with – picking him out from the rest, was to prevent Yuuki from getting information out from him.

Following the end of the entire Rido's fiasco, with the death of the Council members' by Kaname's hands – the pureblood prince will be very busy with the task of re-structuring the night-society in general. Ichijo Takuma would have to help, no doubt – and with Ichijo Asato's death by the hands of Takuma; the impression they were trying to give out to the public was that…Ichiou's death was due to the sins he had committed over the years that simply cannot be condone anymore.

For the case with the rest of the high-ranking official's death within the council, the argument prepared by the pureblood prince was to bring up the issue of Rido Kuran and also the battle within the Cross Academy – itself. Topping it off together, the conspiracy between the Council and the Association since 4 years ago would be brought into light. Which inevitably also translated to mean that the incident of Shizuka Hiou wiping out the Kiryuu Clan would also be - brought up for discussion to take place in the near future.

In the meantime, he would need to work out something to placate those panicky nobles' and that was why he required the assistance of his childhood friend – Ichijo Takuma. Well, if there's one good thing as of current following his decision to wipe out 80% of the council – it was that he was finally off the hook of potential marriage proposals from the nobles' because they were now all panicky and jittery after his acts to eliminate the council members.

Date started: 15/1/2013

Date completed: 17/1/2013


	44. Chapter 43

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.

Author's notes: I rewrite the entire part, deciding to do away with the majority of the meeting issue – because it's quite boring anyway. Okay, so there are 2 new characters in this chapter – the intro as follow:

New Character involved in this chapter: **Matsushita Ayano**; childhood acquaintance of Zero & Ichiru. Her parents were the personal guards to Yukari & Satoshi respectively. She would also be part of the new students joining Cross Academy when the new term begins. Last but not least, she's betrothed to Sayori's elder brother.

The second character would be Fujiwara Misaki – the daughter to Fujiwara Haruto.

Chapter 43 – In which Maria Kurenai make reappearance…

Fujiwara Misaki, daughter to Fujiwara Haruto arrived at the Kyoto estate a little after 7.p.m. fully clad in a Kimono; just like the rest of the members within the Clan. The twenty-five year old female had just came rush down all the way from her ancestral home situated in the Toyama prefecture; after flying back to Japan from her cut-short vacation trip in United States of America.

Unlike her father, Fujiwara Misaki was not skilled in the areas of hunting at all. While she was quite aware of the Clan's business with the Association, she never quite involved herself in it because she does not have a talent for hunting vampires. To be more precise, she faint upon the first sight of blood and therefore Fujiwara Haruto has never liked his daughter around much. Obviously, the man had found his daughter weak and unsuitable to be a member of the hunter's clan.

However, Fujiwara Misaki was not all that useless on the overall. She might be useless in hunting grounds, but she is very good at negotiating and striking deals in business realms. Therefore, Fujiwara Yumi priced her as an asset to the family clan business. The girl, at the age of twenty-five now holds a degree in the field of law and legislation and was one of the legal advisors for the Fujiwara Corporation out in the public market.

"Misaki-san…" Zero greeted when he saw the girl heading towards his direction.

"Good evening, Zero… has the meeting begun yet?" The girl asked.

"Not yet, we are still waiting for Yuka." Zero answered back with ease.

"I see…I supposed an apology would need to be in order." Fujiwara Misaki said then, as she bowed down to Zero in a 90 degrees angle to show her utmost sincerity in apologizing for her father's actions.

"…Apology accepted, though you have no need to take responsibility of your father's antics." Zero sighed aloud as he regarded the older girl in front of him.

"Still I should have said something when I got hold of the information in prior." Misaki replied, apologetically.

"You are in no position to hinder your father's act at that point of time and besides, it was my mother's own decision to take on the mission despite knowing that it is a set-up. As for his recent deeds, he managed to kept it under wraps without anyone detecting until Ichiru wormed himself into the centre of it all to gain information." Zero responded coolly, while analyzing the reason why he would not be blaming his family misfortune on the girl.

The meeting over at the Fujiwara estate took a whole of 3 hours, and several issues have been addressed at once. Among them, included are the list of unredeemable deeds committed by the 'sinner' Fujiwara Haruto and the 'punishments' to be lay out to him; also included in the same meeting was the election of the new Clan Head for the hunter's branch of the family. Initially, it was suggested for Zero to succeed the position – since before Haruto's reign; the rightful successor to the position should be his mother. However, Fujiwara Yukari relinquished her right to success the role when she opted to marry into the Kiryuu Clan.

Nevertheless, Zero and Ichiru both expressed their lack of interest in taking over the Clan Head position while pointing out the sheer fact that – with their current status being vampires; they should automatically being disqualified from the position run. Therefore, the Clan Head for the Hunter's Branch eventually falls upon Fujiwara Satoshi. The son of the previous Clan Head; younger brother of Fujiwara Yukari; the rightful second-in-line to succeed the position before Haruto butted in and seized the position for himself after Yukari married herself off to the Kiryuu.

Due to the uniqueness of the Clan, the hunters of the family were usually working for the Association on free-lance basis. Meaning, when a job comes around for them to handle – they can choose to reject the mission if they do not feel comfortable with handling it. Usually, the Association would only approached the Clan Head and then the Clan Head make the decision to accept the mission or not. If accepted, the Clan Head would pick someone under his league to handle the task and if not – any other people within the Clan with hunting license could come forth to the Association itself and volunteered themselves for the job.

This privilege of choosing own missions to partake however does not applies to the Kiryuu Clan, and that was why the set-up was able to occur in its first place. That was the initial loopholes, and while Zero's mother could very well wash her hands off the entire matter. She opted to go along with her husband's duty, but only after she approached Fujiwara Yumi on her own accord striking a deal with the clan to protect her two sons from it all.

Henceforth, the failure for the Association members to 'kill' Zero initially after he was bitten by Shizuka Hiou and left out on the front porch to fend for himself after his family demise. Zero was first brought under the roof of the Fujiwara Clan following his family's tragedy, whereas Ichiru left with Shizuka Hiou on his own accords under the watchful eyes of one Shizuru – Shizuka's very own sister from the Hiou Clan.

However, during the meeting to discuss what to do with Zero that very night – many things had happened. Basically, Fujiwara Haruto whom was ruling the Hunter's Branch together with the aid of Fujiwara Satoshi then claimed that it would be best for Zero to be 'dead'. Fujiwara Satoshi had protested vehemently then, wanting to save his nephew at all costs. The two of them were locked in a stand-off situation then, and eventually Fujiwara Yumi intervened by bringing up the pact she had strike with Fujiwara Yukari. Claiming to say that she had already failed Yukari for being unable to protect Ichiru, and she was not going to stand by and wait for another tragedy to befall the other twin – Zero.

The situation ended up with Fujiwara Haruto forcing Satoshi to back down from the Clan Head position, and grant him full control and authority over the hunter's branch of the family. The bargain strike between them then was that if Haruto could spare the life of Zero, he could have the position of the Clan Head that he desires so much. However, that was not all there was to it – following Haruto's succeeding in his quest to get the full control of the Clan Head position. He demanded for Zero to be placed under his supervision, and this was objected gravely by Satoshi and eventually Fujiwara Yumi decided to bring in a third party – Kaien Cross into the picture.

Kaien Cross was a retired hunter back then, and was earnestly trying his hands out at the idea of promoting co-existences between humans and vampires. Fujiwara Yumi was willing to give him a chance, so she allowed the man to take custody of Zero and at the same time consented to the idea of Kaien Cross setting up a school for that purpose. Operation of private academic institutions required a license from the local authorities – especially with the education sector of the government. Fujiwara Yumi was willing to grant Kaien Cross an easy way out, by making use of her fellow clan members' authorities in that factor.

The route towards co-existence was never an easy pathway to take, it started out with Juri Kuran's ideals spur on after she had witness how the Fujiwara Clan handled the whole situation in general. Members of the Fujiwara Clan sticks together, they learnt in the same school compound, starting from elementary level and going up all the way to tertiary stage.

Fujiwara Gakuen – one of the most ancient schools set up within the district of Kyoto, Japan. Operated under several clan members, splitting duties evenly among themselves – curriculums offers under the schools are no different from the other public state schools in Japan. However, one would easily notice that within the school over 80% of the school's populations are made up of descents from the Fujiwara Clan and its' supporters family members and it matters not which race they belongs to. The sight awe Juri Kuran to no end, and that was why she had thought co-existence might work out well if properly managed.

Either way, coming back to the topic at hand – with the recent Rido fiasco over at the Cross Academy; Fujiwara Yumi had made the decision to classify Cross Academy as a sister school to the Fujiwara Gakuen managed and operated by the Clan – itself The decision proved to be a wise one, the land where Cross Academy was situated upon falls under the ownership of the Fujiwara Clan and with Yumi's latest proclamation of the affiliation made between both schools.

The Association is now officially off Kaien Cross' back, and with the Council wiped out by Kaname Kuran. There was no need to deal with problems arising from that side either.

Zero was in the midst of clearing away the dishes when the doorbell sounded, turning his eyes upon Kaname Kuran – he asked curiously.

"Were you expecting anyone to visit?"

"No…" Kaname responded, equally bewildered by the sudden guest that comes knocking on the front door of the Kuran's estate at 2.a.m. during dusk hours.

"Erm… I'll go get the door then." Ichijo Takuma volunteered himself for the task, and only to come back minutes later with a hyperactive Maria Kurenai in tow.

Ichiru Kiryuu was just stepping out from the bathroom when he had his wind knock out from him by one very excited Maria Kurenai.

"… Maria…why did you suddenly decided to come here?" Ichiru questioned, looking quite bewildered by the sudden appearance of the girl as well.

"You didn't invite her over?" Zero turned inquiring eyes upon his twin and asked.

"I most certainly did not; I didn't even think I would be here either. So no, it's not me whom invited her." Ichiru replied in a flat-like manner and after sharing a look with Zero – they shifted their eyes to the unsuspecting figure of Yuuki Kuran.

"Hehehe… sorry, its' me…" Yuuki grinned sheepishly when the Kiryuu twins turned their eyes upon her.

"Okay… fine, your guest – you deal with her on your own." Zero throws at Yuuki, as he headed back upstairs to catch some winks. He had after all woken up early for the day, and sitting through a boring meeting that lasted for 3 hours straight – he figured some sleep would be good for him.

"Boys, don't bugged your Uncle Ichiru anymore. He has guest to be dealing with, come along now – it's time for an afternoon nap for the two of you." Zero nearly stumbled over the term 'afternoon' since it was clearly the hours of dusk to him. Still, it does not change the fact that it was 'noon-time' for the vampires in general.

"Okay, Daddy…" Akira and Subaru immediately headed for the awaiting figure of Zero Kiryuu and left Ichiru alone in peace to be handling the sudden arrival of Maria Kurenai together with Yuuki.

"Takuma, leave the living room area to Yuuki and Kiryuu. We will adjourn to the Study for further discussion." Kaname Kuran started; knowing that his continue presence in the room would only resulted in the girl's uneasiness.

"Anou… Kaname-sama, if you don't mind – I would like to speak to you briefly at a later stage of time." Maria Kurenai gathered up her courage and said, trying her hardest not to flinch in fear upon the memory of what the man in front of her had did to the council members the last time she'd checked on the council.

"Of course, but in the meantime – do try to make yourself comfortable in Yuuki's presence." Kaname responded, before leaving the area completely.

Maria Kurenai felt her knees giving way under her once Kaname Kuran was no longer in her presence, and she would have buckled if Ichiru hadn't stepped in to stable her petite frame.

"Honestly, you didn't stumble when Shizuka-sama stood in front of you – why is it so different when it was Kaname Kuran?" Ichiru questioned with skepticism.

Maria Kurenai only allowed herself to smile weakly in response, before steering the conversation elsewhere – she was not going to reveal her reason for fearing Kaname Kuran in front of Yuuki. She does not have a death wish on her list yet; it was obvious judging from Yuuki's expression that whatever happened at the council – the girl was totally clueless and oblivious to it all.

"So what brings you over?" Ichiru knows Maria was hiding something from his knowledge, but he knew the girl would eventually tell him – probably when the pureblood princess was not around and so he didn't pressed on for the details.

"Ah…What do you reckon is the reason behind my visiting here?!" Maria shot back at Ichiru, an expression of utmost displeased on her face.

"… So you knew already?" Ichiru sighed inwardly as he prepared himself mentally for the possibility of needing to calm a hysterical Maria Kurenai down.

"Of course I knew! Do you know how worried I had been when I heard about the battle over at Cross Academy?! And you – how dare you! Why couldn't you have just left the revenge thing to Zero and leave it as that?! Shizuka-sama would have wanted to see you safe and sound, not trying to be a smart-alec and continue her quest for revenge against that Kuran Rido!"

Ichiru listened on in silence as Maria Kurenai ranted and raved about his idiotic acts for a whole of thirty minutes before she finally had it in her to vent off all her extra steam in her system. Then it was another thirty minutes of checking him over, at one point even going to the extent of prying clothes off him to check and see for herself that the wound inflicted upon him by Kuran Rido was fully healed and patched up nicely.

Yuuki Kuran sat by the edge of the sofa feeling like a third wheel, the odd one out – Maria Kurenai and Ichiru Kiryuu seemed to be stuck in a world of their own. It is a rare sight to see Ichiru resigning himself to the fate of being fussed over by Maria Kurenai. It almost reminded her of the times she spend fussing over Zero, back during the days whereby she was still Yuuki Cross.

"Pardon my intrusion, but would you like to have some tea?" Yuuki finally interrupted Maria Kurenai in her mid-fussing act, by bringing up the subject of serving them tea.

Maria Kurenai blinked, and then nodded in response as she said. "Ah yes… tea would be good."

Yuuki nodded, and then retreated into the kitchen to boil water for tea brewing. Ichiru took a look at Yuuki's departing figure, and then he sends his newly acquired guard – Matsushita Ayano out to help the pureblood princess.

"Ayano, go and help her out – I don't want her to injure herself in there." Ichiru stated flatly, last thing he needs now was to have those nobles biting his head off for allowing their pureblood princess to play 'servant' to him and his 'guest'.

"Now, care to tell me the other reason for your coming over?" Ichiru prompted, looking at the girl with expectation apparent on his features.

"The council… what's going to be the future fate for the council supporters? My parents allowed me to come over for the sake of getting an answer to that particular question." Maria Kurenai eventually said, averting her eyes to the ground now.

"Has that issue got anything to do with your sudden increase of fear level in Kaname Kuran?" Ichiru prompted, again.

"Somewhat… I used my powers the other day to check on the council's possible actions in relations to what happened at the academy, but I saw him cleansing out the council members instead." Maria Kurenai revealed uneasily, keeping her tone soft so as to avoid catching the attention of the pureblood princess in the kitchen.

"I see…so when do you intend to chat with the Kuran prince then?" Ichiru asked next, keeping an eye out on the kitchen's occupant's moves at the same time.

"I'll wait a few more days before broaching the subject…" Maria Kurenai answered, while Ichiru nodded in response – and then steering the conversation to something else more lightening.

In the end, they ended up speaking of the Hiou's Clan inheritance instead. How ironic – that is the only topic they could speak of without bringing a certain Kuran into discussion.

Upstairs on the second storey, Zero Kiryuu was thinking about what to do with the inheritances from the Hiou's Clan. He wanted to have nothing to do with it that much was certain – from what he had pried out from Akane. Seems like the 'him' in Akane's time-era had decided to pass it all over to Kaname Kuran to handle, but now he was thinking along the lines of letting Ichiru handle those portion of the inheritances. At least that would give his twin something to do, to occupy the time with – and besides, Ichiru is better at dealing with the Kurenai.

"Maa… I'll speak to Ichiru later on about this then." Zero muttered to him-self, before heading back for the pureblood's room and retires for the night.

Meanwhile, down in the Study – Ichijo Takuma and Kaname Kuran were discussing about their guest Maria Kurenai's reason for wanting to speak with the pureblood prince in private.

"Kaname, what do you think is her reason behind wanting to speak with you?" Ichijo Takuma asked.

"Probably it had something to do with the cleansing of the Council; I am quite surprised that the Kurenai is the first family to react. I would have thought the Aidou's would be the first bringing the questions over to my attention, with all that close relationship between his son and me." Kaname mused aloud to himself.

"So what are you going to do with her?" Ichijo Takuma asked next.

"Correction, I am not going to do anything with her. I am only going to tell her the same thing I intend to tell the others. Besides, it's her parents that need clarifications not her. She's still too young to involve herself into this whole issue." Kaname responded.

"Young…? She's already 15, hardly considered to be young at all by our standards of course." Ichijo Takuma pointed out that sheer fact.

"The whole lot of you decided to involve your-selves with my plan, I did not force you people to go along with it." Kaname pointed out, evidently.

"Fine then…now I seriously think that you need to do something to soothe the frantic nerves of those nobles out there. The meeting and restructuring of the council can wait, but I honestly think you need to organize a reception or sort – invite those affected personnel out and give them some form of reassurance." Ichijo Takuma supplied helpfully from his position in front of the fireplace within the Study room of the Kuran's estate.

"I know where you're coming from, I really do. In fact, I already have a plan for the reception party but before that – I believed I would need to get Yuuki in shape first." Kaname answered.

"Get Yuuki in shape?" The green eyed blond vampire repeated in confusion, still not quite catching on to Kaname's hidden meaning behind the words.

"Yuuki's birthday next month – that would be when I would bring the Kuran Clan into light again." Kaname further elaborated for his friend's sake.

"Okay… so I gathered that you would need to get Yuuki into the proper lady she should be? Should I be getting Ruka ready for all that coaching lessons?" Ichijo Takuma asked, starting to sympathize with his friends now.

"Yes, please kindly fill them in on the details." Kaname nodded his agreement to his friend's words.

"…You are not thinking about bringing Zero out as your 'Queen', are you? Zero would flip, and not to mention the nobles might reacted in a negative manner." Ichijo then started with hesitation.

"That – I haven't decided. Depending on the situation, I just might decide to do that. Either way, my main aim was to introduce Yuuki into the night-society officially." With that said, the pureblood heir promptly shoo his friend out from the Study to grant himself some peace and quiet for his thoughts.

Touya Rima and Shiki Senri were currently in the basement room – Yuuki's old room, chewing away on their private stash of chocolate 'POCKY' stick. Reason being, to prevent the twins from getting their hands upon this junk food – Kaname had told them to avoid eating these snacks within the twins' vision range. That ended with them having to make the basement room their secret hideout place for junk foods, and they can only come in here to 'chill-out' when the boys are nowhere in sight.

That was exactly how Ichijo Takuma stumbled upon them later when the green eyed blond ventured in here to search for his missing manga volumes.

"The two of you skipped meals for junk food?" The Vice-President of the Night-Class arched an eyebrow up when he entered the basement room.

"Technically, Shiki decided to skip meal because he's uncomfortable with the idea of sitting down together with the younger Kiryuu twin on the same dining table. I told him there's no reason for him to be feeling jumpy but it seems like he's still quite bothered by the sheer notion of being in the company of Ichiru Kiryuu." Touya Rima kindly enlightened their resident Vice-President about their reason for munching on Pocky stick in here instead of joining the rest at the dining room in prior.

"Honestly, Shiki – there's no need for you to worry yourself over nothing. No one is going to blame you for allowing your father to possess you, okay? Now stop hiding in here like a hermit, Akira and Subaru missed having their wonderful Uncle Shiki back – you know?" Ichijo Takuma said, wondering what else he could have done to snap his friend out from that 'hermit-crab' status.

"…" Shiki remained silent about it, making no promises saved for the exception that he would turned up for the next meal.

"…Make sure you do as you said, else I'm going to come in here and drag you out personally. Right, did anyone of you happen to see the latest volume of 'Prince of Tennis' manga – anywhere?" Ichijo Takuma then asked.

"No, it's definitely not here – have you check Akane's room for it yet? She had a knack of sneaking into your room to get her hands on those mangas of yours – I'm certain you are very much aware of that." Shiki Senri answered his friend's question in a deadpanned manner.

"Oh…" Upon Shiki's enlightenment on the issue, Ichijo Takuma finally recalled Akane mentioning about being bored earlier on in the day and he had told the girl to take whatever she wish to flip through off his precious collection of the newly released mangas.

So there is a very high possibility of his missing mangas being in Akane's grasp as of current – but seeing as Akane's asleep now, he couldn't sneak into the girl's room and get it back. If not, Kaname would sure have his head on a silver platter. Because Akane's current room also serves as a room for the pureblood Kuran princess…

Ichijo Takuma was feeling bored with absolutely nothing to do, the twins are napping and Akane sleeping. The living room is out of bound for now, Maria Kurenai and Ichiru Kiryuu was probably in there chatting. That Matsushita girl was probably in the kitchen helping Yuuki out, Aidou and Akatsuki busy with some research materials in the library.

Ruka has taken to hiding herself in the room again, most probably still sorting out her luggage – seeing as most of them haven't really unpacked yet. This is after all, only their third day here in the estate.

"Ichijo Vice-President…May I inquired your reason for coming out here?" The sudden sound of Risa Miyazaki's voice jolted the green eyed blond vampire to reality.

"Eh…?" The Vice-President of the Night Class widens his eyes for a split second, as his mind registered the place he was now in – the front patio of the Kuran estate.

"…" Risa Miyazaki sighed, looks like the blond was zoning out when he came over – hence the look of complete bewilderment when she addressed him. "Was there anything that I could perhaps, help you with?" The female Common Class Vampire asked.

"Hm..m…Maybe…" Ichijo Takuma responded.

"…You have got to be more precise with your answer, Ichijo-san."

"Well, I'm bored – and there's nobody to entertain me. So…I was thinking that perhaps we could have a short chat or something?" The green eyed blond answered.

"I see… so what do you wish to chat about?" Risa Miyazaki prompted, as she took the liberty to pour the blond a cup of tea from the pot that she had brewed and brought out here in prior.

"Tell me something about yourself then…" Ichijo Takuma suggested.

"Me…? There's nothing special about me."

"I'm sure there's something which you can say about yourself that's not stated in the profile… for instances, your hobbies? What do you do usually when you are free?"

Risa Miyazaki stared for a while before shrugging and giving in to the blond request for having a short chit-chat session. So she started playing 50 questions with the Vice-President of the Night-Class, answering harmless and completely random questions that seemed to pop into the said person's mind.

Slowly, she began to shoot her own questions towards the blond as well – not wanting to be the only one answering those stupid questions as she dubbed them. The session continues on until the twins boys woke from their little nap, and come tumbling out from the house heading for their direction.

"Aunt Risa!" Akira called out for the female's attention, become coming to a stop in front of the said female.

"Yes, Akira-sama…?" Risa tilted her head slightly to the side, looking at the wavy haired boy in a quizzical manner.

"Are you having a mid-night rendezvous meeting with Uncle Takuma?" The boy asked with an innocent smile on his face, successfully rendering the two teenage vampires silence.

"No, we are just playing 50 questions." Risa told Akira in a tone devoid of emotions and her expression a mask of indifference.

"Oh…" The boy for some odd reason appeared to be disappointed for a minute, before brightening up again. "Aunt Risa, can you and Uncle Takuma bring Subaru and me up to the rooftop for a while?" The boy requested, using his favorite puppy eyes look.

"…" Risa sweat-drop, inwardly wondering how is she going to fight against 'that' when Ichijo Takuma smiled down at the boy and asked.

"Akira, why do you want to go up to the roof?"

"Sunrise…we want to catch that moment with our own eyes!" Akira announced, and then sliding his glance over to his elder twin - Subaru for some form of morale support.

"…" Subaru took one look at his twin's face, and then turned back to the two teenage vampires in front of them and nodded in agreement to his twin's words.

Ichijo Takuma and Risa Miyazaki shared a common look among them-selves, before abiding to the twins' request. And so Ichijo took Subaru in his arms, while Risa took Akira – by the mental count of three, both of them bring the boys up to the rooftop with a fast leapt motion.

Back in the living room where Maria Kurenai and Ichiru Kiryuu chit-chatted among them-selves, when the female aristocrat brought up the question pertaining to the twins' existence…causing the younger Kiryuu twin to sweat-drop in response.

"Maria… just drop the issue for now, okay…? It's a long story, for the time being you'll only need to know that the two boys' are our temporary guests from the future." Ichiru responded, hoping that Maria Kurenai would simply leave it as it is and drop the issue entirely.

"Alright… but promised that you will tell me next time!" Maria Kurenai pouted adorably as she answered Ichiru.

Ichiru Kiryuu merely shrugged in response, not giving any form of confirmation for the girl. Whether or not to reveal the entire situation to Maria Kurenai, the decision shall lay with his twin not him. Signaling for Yuuki to come over and arrange for a guest room for Maria Kurenai's temporary stay, Ichiru headed back for his assigned room and get ready for his long over-due rest.

Date started: 17/1/2013

Date completed: 19/1/2013


	45. Chapter 44

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, Wakaba Sayori had her first interaction session with Akatsuki Kain – cousin of Aidou Hanabusa. Later portion of the chapter, you get to see the twins with Akane plotting something mischievous and also a so-called argument between our dear KanZe.

Chapter 44 – In which Zero and Kaname had their first 'row' as an official couple…

Wakaba Sayori woke slightly after the sun had rises for the day, a quick look to the side – Matsushita Ayano was fast asleep. She had slept in earlier the day before, so she had no idea what time the girl actually came in.

Matsushita Ayano was the guard allocated to Ichiru Kiryuu, selected by the elders of the Fujiwara Clan members. The sixteen year old teenage girl was the only daughter of Matsushita Kenta and Keiko, and also the childhood acquaintance of Zero and Ichiru's cousin – Fujiwara Akemi. Skilled in the areas of Kendo, she was a student of Fujiwara Satoshi's Kendo Doujo since the tender age of five.

Matsushita served the Fujiwara Clan just like the Wakaba, they were in fact one of the oldest subordinate family to the Fujiwara Clan. The name of Matsushita is quite well established in the auto-mobile industry, and one would be surprised just how many of those industries out there actually contributed a share to the fortunes of the Fujiwara Clan these days. Unlike the Kuran, Shirabuki, the Hiou and the Watanabe – Fujiwara Clan is the only pureblood vampire ever in history to really fit in with the humans' population and modern society these days. It could be seen from their willingness to locate their homes in the middle of a bustling city of life, and not in the outskirts whereby community is small.

The Ichijo family while having taken a page out from the Fujiwara style of doing things had never quite succeeded in their blending in with the humans' population. Sure, Ichijo Asato had started up the Ichijo Enterprise out there in the modern city and was doing quite well. However, if one were to zoom in on their business partners – quite a number of them were corporations managed by vampires alike. That was the reason why Ichijo Enterprise had never quite made it abroad creating a name and a brand for them-selves. The Fujiwara though, was another matter entirely. They have business ties and relations with a lot of business corporations, governments and private agencies out there in the market.

For instances, the Matsushita had a high reputation in the world of the auto-mobile industry and Electronics sector of the manufacturing field. The Sawashiro, on the other hand, had undeniable ties to the underground world of the Yakuzas. Casinos, night-clubs and the shady areas of business usually fall under the Sawashiro's management. The Mishima family was the complete opposite; they were affiliated with the government tourism agencies and operate hotels, resorts – the more 'clean' type of recreational venues out in the Japan market. Last but not least, the Wakaba – they are well versed in the fields of archery and the family had relations to the police department.

"Sayori…?" The sudden sound emitting from the slumbering figure on her side jarred the hazel brown haired girl out from her thoughts.

"Huh…?" Sayori blinked twice to rid the sleep out from her eyes, before turning towards Matsushita Ayano.

"Have you brief Zero on his appointments to come in time yet?" Matsushita Ayano, Ichiru's personal bodyguard cum assistant prompted.

"…No…but I do know he would flip on it. He hates business dealings and socializing trips with a passion." Wakaba Sayori said in a deadpanned manner.

"I know, but still – you have to tell him. He should have known what he had gotten himself into when he signed on the legal papers to regain control of his own inheritances." Matsushita Ayano pointed out.

"How about you – have you inform your 'boss' yet?" Sayori throws back in response.

"I did, and he took it quite well." Ayano answered with a shrug.

"Gees…that's a given – Ichiru is the socializing twin, not Zero." Sayori muttered under her breath, as she started getting up to got ready for the new day ahead.

After making herself presentable for the day, Wakaba Sayori left Ayano alone to rest in the room and stepped out into the corridor way. The estate was of course engulfed in silence, since it was way too 'late' for the vampires to still be awake in sight. Sayori was in the midst of preparing breakfast for her own consumption, when she was startled by one Akatsuki Kain from behind.

"Good morning, Wakaba-san."

"Good morning, Akatsuki-san." Sayori managed to greet back in response, after she managed to calm her nerves.

"I apologized, did I startle you?" Akatsuki Kain frowned, as he regarded the human girl in front of him with mild concern.

"Just a bit, I wasn't aware that anyone would still be awake at this point of time." Sayori admitted, placing aside the plate on the kitchen counter top and turned to face the vampire standing behind her.

"I see…" Akatsuki commented, but did not leave just yet – and so Sayori decided to ask.

"Is there perhaps anything which I could help you with?"

"Actually there is…Wakaba-san; do you have a minute to spare? There is something which I was hoping to speak to you about…" Akatsuki Kain responded with solemnity apparent on his features, causing Sayori to frown in response as well.

"Sure, I supposed breakfast could wait for a while." Sayori responded, setting aside her current task on hand and moved towards the dining room with the vampire in tow for the conversation to come.

Once in the dining room, Sayori waited until the fire wielding vampire had taken his seat opposite from her before taking the initiative to strike up the conversation between them. "So what is it that you wish to speak with me about?"

"My cousin – Aidou Hanabusa, I supposed you know where I'm coming from?" The vampire renowned for his wild hairstyle and dressing sense, started.

"…I believed so." Wakaba Sayori allowed a sigh of resignation to escape from her lips, as she looked up into the eyes of the fire wielding vampire and said. Of course, she knew what the vampire was trying to communicate with her about – she was not all blind to those actions taken by a certain blue eyed blond when it comes down to her.

The random temper tantrum; the over-protective syndrome; and the relentless attempt at striking up conversation and also not to forget those glances directed towards her way whenever that guy thought no one was watching. Wakaba Sayori might not be a full-fledge hunter, but still she was trained in these aspects – too. There was absolutely no way she could have missed those gaze of intensity being directed towards her, and it was not all that hard to pin-point the owner of those intensity gaze either.

"You have no need to worry, what he has for me is nothing but a mere infatuation. It will pass with time…" Wakaba Sayori told Akatsuki Kain, hoping to sound strong and firm despite the underlying lack of confidence in what she said.

"I certainly hope so, but it is hard to tell with Hanabusa. He could be rather bullheaded at times…" Akatsuki Kain expressed his worries across to Sayori, in a deadpanned manner.

His cousin had it bad for the girl, that much – Akatsuki was aware of. Despite his relentless attempt at highlighting the difference between his cousin and Wakaba Sayori; pointing out the sheer fact that nothing could work between the duos. Aidou Hanabusa was still avoiding the fact, and even went to the extent of sniping at him if the name of Wakaba Sayori was brought up for discussion among them. Since his cousin failed to see reason behind his actions, he gathered he would have to tackle the problem from another point – and that would be to speak with the girl personally.

"I see what you mean; I'll find time to speak with him about it." Wakaba Sayori eventually said, feeling the start of a headache setting in on her.

"I sincerely hoped that you would be able to talk him around." Akatsuki Kain replied, before turning on his heels and headed back upstairs for his long-overdue rest.

Akane Kiryuu hides behind a pillar as she listened to the conversation between Akatsuki Kain and Wakaba Sayori, sighing inwardly as she registered the main reason behind this conversation between the duos. Having come here from the future and changing several things in the past – there's only one thing neither she nor the twins had it in them to change. That is – the peculiar relationship between one Wakaba Sayori and Aidou Hanabusa.

Akane was not really aware of what had transpired between Aidou Hanabusa and Wakaba Sayori back in her own time, but with the way Aidou Hanabusa had remained single all the way without getting himself hitched with a bride. Akane was willing to bet whatever attraction the blond had felt towards Wakaba Sayori was not a mere infatuation, it would have to be something more than that.

"Oh boy… what a headache to be dealing with…" Akane muttered aloud to no one in particular.

"Akane… what are you doing down here muttering to yourself?" The sound of Zero Kiryuu speaking up snapped the girl out from her train of thoughts.

"Ah…Zero, good morning to you and where are the twins?" Akane greeted before inquiring on her siblings' whereabouts.

"Akane, its morning – they are of course still asleep…" Zero responded, eyeing his future adopted daughter as though the girl a screw loose in her mind.

"I see…" Akane made a knowing sound, inwardly wondering about the possibility of matching Yuuki up with Aidou Hanabusa. The idea has been weighing on Akane's mind for some-time now, and the more she pondered about it – the more plausible the situation seem to be. Oh well, she would have to run her idea pass Kaname Kuran first – she had no death wish on her list just yet.

"…" Zero eyed the sandy-haired girl with some suspicion, he had a feeling that Akane was planning to do something and she intend to rope the twins into it. Deciding to just deal with whatever the trio comes up with in time, Zero dragged the girl off towards the dining room for breakfast without another words being spoken between them.

"Kaname-sama, you called for me?" Ruka Souen entered the Study Room of the Kuran estate, and asked.

"Yes, I had something to ask from you. I would like you to teach Yuuki a thing or two, pertaining to the standard behavior in public." Kaname Kuran started, turning his eyes away from the window and directed them towards the female blonde vampire in his Study.

"Of course, Kaname-sama... I would be more than willing to assist you in that factor." Ruka Souen agreed easily, not knowing the troubles to come in time.

Zero Kiryuu waited until he was certain that Ruka Souen was completely out from earshot before speaking up and addressing the pureblood seated behind the work desk within the Study.

"I certainly hope Yuuki would not drive her insane during lessons, I'm sure you and I both know – Yuuki isn't really the 'lady' type of girl."

"You think I don't know that? That's exactly why I only told Ruka to teach Yuuki how to behave in public; I'm not having hopes of transforming Yuuki to a typical 'lady' person because I know she doesn't have it in her. " Kaname Kuran responded dryly to Zero's statement about Yuuki's personality.

To which Zero merely shrugged, pushing aside the topic of Yuuki for now and bring up another issue for discussion.

"So what did Maria Kurenai speak to you about?" Zero asked; he had seen how uptight his younger twin had been when the girl entered the Study to speak with Kaname before. There must be a reason behind his twin's agitation about the meeting between Maria Kurenai and the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan.

"…I never did tell you what I went off to doing during the fateful night whereby the battle with Rido took place, did I?" Kaname suddenly said, causing the silver-haired teen to blink a couple of times before registering his words.

"Well, I didn't have it in me to inquire of you either…" Zero responded, wondering why Kaname was not answering his question outright and instead had to go in a round circle.

"I was at the council, and apparently Maria Kurenai had the misfortune of spying on the council only to see me cleansing out the members of the council in mid-actions." Kaname stated flatly, and then he waited for his words to sink into his silver-haired lover fully.

"…Okay, then I'm glad you didn't choose to 'wipe' her off the world of living too." There was a moment of silence, before Zero responded to the pureblood's words.

"Zero…do you seriously think that I would kill her off for that reason?" Kaname was frowning now, of all the possible response – he didn't think Zero would say something in that nature.

"I don't know, okay?! Maybe it just did not appeal to me that you would keep someone who had seen you attempting those dirty deeds alive!" Zero snapped, irritated by Kaname Kuran's words.

He had remained oddly calm when he heard of the pureblood's actions of slaying the council members – because he never cared much about the Vampire Council. He had no idea how Kaname had wanted him to react by telling him that Maria Kurenai had the misfortune of witnessing the 'cleansing' act taking place at the Council – the night he battled Rido. And so, his years of hunter's training came into play – and he ended up saying what he said in response to the pureblood's words.

"Zero, I do not simply murder anyone out from cold-blood. I am not that low in character." Kaname state in a tone devoid of emotions; his expression once again taking on his usual mask of indifference.

"Going defensive on me, are you now?" Zero throws out when he realized that Kaname had once again clammed up in defense with his emotions masked up behind that poker face of indifference.

"…" There was no response from Kaname Kuran; the pureblood remained unmoving in his position. That pissed Zero off completely, he knew his words must have strike a nerve in Kaname in order to render the man to clam up like a shell. Still, what else was he supposed to say in that situation? He had no idea what Kaname had against the Vampire Council in general, and when the pureblood brought up the issue of Maria Kurenai witnessing the former actions taken upon the council's members – the first logical comment was of course to comment on the pureblood's decision to spare the girl's life.

It would be good if Kaname Kuran had just decided to leave things be, but no – that guy had to press on the issue and get to the bottom of his thoughts on the matter. When he finally snapped and revealed his inner thoughts to the former, said vampire had decided to clam up on him out from self-defense.

"You know what? I think I'd better be off before I do something I'll regret in time." Zero Kiryuu eventually throws out to the defensive pureblood, as he stalked out from the room with the intention to cool his temper down elsewhere.

Kaname Kuran clenched his fist tightly by the side when he first heard the door leading to the Study Room being slammed shut in the silver-haired teen's wake. A part of him wanted to venture out and drag his lover back in with him and yet another part was thinking that it might be better for Zero to head out and vent off some steam. He certainly did not mean to just clam up like this after Zero snap at him, but it was his instincts at work – an act of self-preservation.

Irritation directed mainly to himself at its peak, his powers accidentally leaked out and caused several wine-glasses sitting in the display cabinet of the room to break in response.

Outside the Study Room, Akane whom was passing by said corridor way flinched inwardly upon the sound of the glasses breaking from the room within – followed by the slamming of the front door of the Kuran's estate.

'Thank god the twins are not around…' Akane thought to herself, the boys' certainly do not need to witness or knows about this issue between Kaname and Zero.

The twins' boys had been taken out to town by Shiki Senri and Touya Rima, a ploy of her cousin to get Shiki Senri out from that hermit crab shell the model teen had taken to develop over the past few days of being anti-social and hiding away from the majority of the estate's residents. Yuuki, on the other hand, was pre-occupied with the lessons with Ruka Souen.

Initially, she was involved in the lessons too but Ruka had claimed that she was already well-skilled in that areas and do not need more practice. Furthermore, her achievements of constantly being praised by Ruka was getting Yuuki even more dejected with each passing minute and therefore Akane had taken the liberty to take a break from the classes' altogether.

However, if Akane had any ideas that the younger version of her future adopted parents would be having their first 'row' to speak – she would rather be in the room to keep Yuuki Company then to chance upon something like this.

And so, Akane took refuge in her cousin's room instead – and waking the said vampire up from his nap.

Ichijo Takuma woke to the sound of his room's door creaking open, and then the figure of one Akane Kiryuu sneaking in and took refuge by holing up in the tiny balcony of his room.

"Akane…?"

"Sorry for waking you, just go back to your nap. I just need something to entertain myself with." Akane started, directing a weak smile towards Ichijo Takuma's way.

"Akane, don't lies…tell me what's bugging you." The green eyed blond sat himself up in bed, and look Akane in the eyes as he said.

"Actually, it's nothing … really. I just had the misfortune of witnessing Zero and Kaname-sama having their first row since they got together here as a couple." Akane winced when she relate the earlier events to her cousin, uneasily.

"Okay… so what can we do then?"

"Nothing… this is something they had to deal with – by their own means. We, as outsiders can't really do much – I supposed, the only thing we could do now was to occupy the twins' attention and hoping the twins wouldn't catch on to whatever was happening between those two." Akane responded, sighing wearily as she flopped herself onto her back upon her cousin's bed.

"Don't they have their rows back in your time period? Why are you so uneasy about letting the twins catch on to what transpired between them before?" Ichijo Takuma asked.

"They do have arguments, fights from time-to-time back from where we came from. However, the twins never really see them having disagreement over such issues – what the twins seen were just a corner of the ice-berg. Since by the time the twins were born to them, the relationship between Zero and Kaname were pretty much iron-clad and unshakable already. It was me, whom had the misfortune of being stuck between most of their disagreements because I was the one with them since they started getting together. In fact, I'm one of the topics pertaining to their many arguments at that point of time."

"Huh…? Why is that so?" Ichijo Takuma asked the girl curiously.

"I've mentioned before right – I was adopted by them when they were in their early stages of the relationship?"

"Well, yes… you'd mentioned that before."

"Right, anyway – after my family demise'… I wasn't taken in by Zero right away. I actually spend nights in the quarantine compartments of the hunter's association until Zero practically marches into the place and bring me out from there. I do not know how he did it, but eventually he won out the argument and brought me back home with him. He left me with Seiren for a while and went inside the Study to talk things out with Kaname-sama, I believed.

I can't remember much, since I was practically just about four years old back then. I stayed in the Kuran's estate for about 1 week before Kaname-sama made up his mind to adopt me into the family, but of course – under Zero's name. No, it wasn't this building we are in right now – it's the estate situated in the outskirts of Tokyo. That is where I spend most of the years of my childhood days in – and honestly speaking, they fight about practically everything pertaining to me. From the point of adoption to the upbringing style…sometimes I feel as though I'm their practicing dummy doll to prepare for Akira and Subaru's arrival. Of course, there are other kinds of arguments too – relating to Zero's hunting profession and Kaname-sama's desire to get Zero out from that line of work."

"So did Zero stop?"

"What…? Oh, you mean stop working as a hunter? No… he didn't he continues on, but instead of executing orders as per the association issued – he started to pick and choose his own jobs later. I think he only stopped taking up hunting missions completely after he fell pregnant with the twins." Akane allowed a wry grin to play on her lips upon that sheer memory of that event to worm into her mind.

"Okay, so judging from your experience – how long do you think Zero will be away?" Ichijo Takuma hurried to steer the topic away from the private life of his pureblood friend and Zero Kiryuu.

"Maximum 3 days I believe… so until he had it in him to come back, please keep the twins entertained – okay? Dear cousin of mine…" Akane grinned, before leaving the said vampire's room – feeling all better now that she had gotten her worries off her mind.

Date started: 18/1/2013

Date completed: 18/1/2013


	46. Chapter 45

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: Continue from where I left off last chapter, see where Zero went off after leaving the estate. Yagari Touga made reappearance in this chapter, and I'll have some Shiki scenes in here too…

Chapter 45 – In which Fujiwara Akemi entered the scenes…

Wakaba Sayori stared after the departing figure of Zero with a frown, she was about to approach Zero to brief him on his itinerary arrangement for the following day when the man just stalk out of the house in a huff.

"…Okay, now what?" Sayori questioned as she turned inquiring eyes upon the rest of the occupants who had ventured out front to investigate the reason behind the slamming door.

"You haven't informed him yet and you let him stalk off just like that?" Ayano repeated, staring at her friend incredulously.

"Well, excuse me for not following him around at all times – you and I both know how much he dislike that notion of it!" Sayori throws back in mild annoyance.

"Eh…pardon my intrusion but what on earth are the two of you arguing about?" The newly emerged Akane Kiryuu questioned, bringing a ceasefire to the two girls' conversation.

"Sayori here forgotten to inform her 'boss' of the upcoming tea party that would be taking place tomorrow…" Ayano supplied helpfully.

"Okay, so what? I mean Zero wasn't really that kind of socializing type, just tell the other party that he had other commitment and would not be joining that tea party for tomorrow. I am certain that the other party would not have minded much, and then Sayori you can go and attend the tea party on Zero's behalf. That would solve the problem already – isn't it?" Akane concluded easily.

"…I guess so, but the facility visit scheduled this weekend – he can't skip out on that." Sayori added then.

"Fine… then text him and inform him of it, so that he would know to be back before then." Akane interjected, her tone firm leaving no room for further arguments.

"Why should Wakaba Sayori be the one to attend on behalf of Kiryuu and not that twin of his?" Aidou Hanabusa spoke up then, expressing his confusion of the whole issue.

"Simple – because Ichiru already had other commitment to attend for - tomorrow morning..." Ayano responded then.

"Huh…?"

"Ichiru had an appointment with the board of directors of the Sakura Co-operatives Limited tomorrow morning at 9.a.m. and then subsequently a birthday party of a fellow business partner's daughter to attend at noon hours. That's the reason why he cannot attended the tea party on Zero's schedule in the elder twin's absence period and Sayori would have to do that instead – a duty of hers' since she is the one handling the personal assistant job for the elder Kiryuu." Ayano elaborated for the sake of the aristocrats that are obviously unaware of the situation at hand.

"Sorry, can anyone explain a little on the current situation – I am afraid we are catching no balls here." Akatsuki Kain spoke up, completely bewildered – why is it that there are so many well known companies name being uttered from the two humans' girl's lips and it all involved the Kiryuu twins in them.

"…Never mind, I'll handle the explanation to the lots of them. The two of you go back to your current task at hand, I believed – Ayano; you have to go through the details on the legal paper pertaining to the inheritances from the Hiou Clan with Ichiru. Sayori, do call up the organizer for the tea party on Zero's schedule and explained the reason behind his absence and informed them of your going on his behalf – immediately. In process of doing that, kindly postpone all appointments on Zero's schedule for the next three days to come – those that cannot be postponed feed them some plausible reasons explaining Zero's inability to turn up or you can go in his stead." Akane instructed, dismissing the girls back to their task at hand while she took it upon herself to explain things to the aristocrats.

Yagari Touga dropped himself wearily onto the sofa couch situated within his old friend – Kaien Cross' residence. He had just came straight from a meeting over at the hunter's association, and obviously the Vice-Chairperson was quite upset that the Chairman position has once again befalls on another dude brought in specially from another country instead of picking one from Japan's native region.

"Touga… you looked kind of tired down there, did anything happen in the association?" The ex-hunter, Kaien Cross questioned his old friend whom had yet to speak a word to him since the former entry into his humble abode.

"Nothing but the usual happened – it seems like our Vice-Chairperson had once crossed path with his chance of being promoted again." Yagari Touga, the veteran hunter throws back in return.

"Oh… I take it that he choose to dump all his unhappiness on you again?" Kaien Cross commented, sounding amused by the sheer notion of it.

"Kaien, do me a favor and shut up already!" Yagari Touga muttered back in response, throwing a look of annoyance towards the lunatic Chairman's way.

"So who did they pick for to take on the role of the Chairperson this time around for the association?" A new voice sounded from the doorway, drawing the two experienced hunters to glance in that direction.

"Why…Zero…Are you finally here to visit PAPA?!" Kaien Cross started to act stupid upon the sight of the silver-haired teen, again.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with that lot of blood suckers?!" Yagari Touga throws out to his once favorite disciple.

"…" Zero Kiryuu choose to ignore the Chairman's idiotic antics, before turning in his Master's direction and said. "I heard that they have started out the renovations on campus, so I decided to pop by and take a look at the situation in general."

Yagari Touga eyed Zero critically in the eye for some time, before shrugging and decided to leave things be. Taking his time to observe his disciple, the veteran hunter was now certain in his judgment that Zero Kiryuu had indeed changed. Like that twin of his, both of them seemed to have gain on the status of a Level B overnight.

"Ooi Kid, care to enlighten me on the answer that you never got around to answer me that night when I had first locked you up in here?" Yagari Touga then asked.

"Master, if you want to know the reason behind the change in me – all you had to do is to ask, instead of going one big round for it." Zero throws back at the elder man dryly.

"Well then, are you going to reveal or not?" The veteran hunter shot back at the teen in annoyance.

"The reason behind why I'm not falling to the End but rising up to where I am now – is because of the blood of the Fujiwara flowing through my veins. Apparently, that was the reason and then coupled with the blood from a fellow pureblood triggered off the change." Zero eventually answered, leaving out the glory details of his ingestion of the Hiou Clan members' blood.

Initially, there was a slight bewilderment but it soon gave way to realization and then Yagari Touga widens his eyes in mild disbelief.

"You drank from him?"

Zero nodded warily to the veteran hunter, and then he said. "Yes, I did drink my fill from him several days prior to the battle…but there's something more to it."

Behind the work desk, Kaien Cross stilled in his movements and turn startling eyes upon the silver-haired teen. Unlike his friend, the Chairman of the Cross Academy happens to know more of the vampires' culture as compared to Yagari Touga and henceforth had caught on to the underlying meaning behind Zero's words by now.

"Zero…you…" The Chairman started, but was forced to stop when he heard his friend speaking up again.

"You LET that leech drank from you?!" Yagari Touga sounded quite incredulous when he said this, as he turned disbelieving eyes upon his once disciple.

"Technically, I didn't – he just bites me in the neck when I'm drinking my fill from him." Zero recounted from his memory of that night's event.

"So that bloody bastard took advantage of the situation, did he?" Yagari Touga muttered aloud, before narrowing his eyes into slits and questioned. "Tell me you shoot him!"

"…" Zero was silent, now this is something he was guilty of because he didn't bother with the shooting. If anything, he was more worried about the well-being of Kaname Kuran at that point of time then.

"Touga, it is not that simple…" Kaien Cross started then, as he turned inquiring eyes upon Zero to confirm his thoughts on the situation.

Yagari Touga did not miss the brief moment of eye contact between the duos, and he certainly did not miss the nod given to Kaien Cross by his once favorite disciple. Almost immediately, the veteran hunter gritted out in irritation. "What the hell does that mean – Cross?!"

"It would appear that our Zero-chan here has bonded with Kaname-kun." Kaien Cross announced gleefully. He had been expecting something likes that to happen between the duos for some time now, but he just did not think of the possibility of it happening this soon in time. He, like Yuuki – was not blind to the growing attraction and chemistry feel in the air whenever those two crossed path with one another since the arrival of the future trio.

Now Yagari Touga finally caught on to the underlying meaning behind his friend's words, he might not be that educated in the culture and lifestyle of the blood suckers but he do know one thing – at least, he knew the meaning behind the term 'bonded'. It practically means a marriage union without the official certification that binds them together. And then he glared at his once favorite disciple and demand.

"Have you slept with him yet?"

"…" Silence was the only answer received from Zero, again while the veteran hunter sucked in a deep breath before he stalked out of the place.

"…Well…that went better than I'd expected." Zero muttered aloud when he watched his Master marched out from the Chairman's residence.

"Honestly, Zero…what were you thinking about by coming over and let him in on such information? He's going to try and kill Kaname-kun after this, you know?" Kaien Cross directed his words to his adopted son since four years ago.

"He can try but he won't be able to succeed, Akira and Subaru would both remind him of the thousand reasons why." Zero answered, effortlessly.

Speaking of which, you are not giving me any grandchild yet – are you?" The Chairman questioned, and then eyed Zero's abdomen section with curious eyes.

"Get your mind out of the gutter already! To answer your question, NO – I am not giving you any grandchildren yet and probably wouldn't for the next ten years to come!" Zero glared at the Chairman of Cross Academy hotly, as his face flushed a deep shade of red. From anger or embarrassment – he had no idea.

Kaien Cross wisely kept his mouth shut from then on; obviously Zero was flipping on his words before. Not wanting to know what his foster son could be capable of doing to him now; the Chairman wisely diverted his concentration back to his work on hand while leaving Zero alone to cool off in one corner of his residence area.

"Aww… so cute! Touya-san, do you know who is the kid next to Shiki-san?" One of the photo-shoot crew members whispered to Touya Rima while helping the female model in the process of applying make up.

"…They are Shiki's nephews." Rima pondered for a minute, before answering the question posed by the crew members.

Sitting some distance away from Touya Rima is the silent male model – Shiki Senri, only he was not quite a loner today at the photo-shoot venue. Two little boys of six – Subaru Kiryuu and Akira Kuran were with him today. The two boys had tagged along the resident models of the Night-Class to their job site; after their resident Vice-President told the two models to keep them entertain for the day.

{Flashback to several hours ago…}

Touya Rima and Shiki Senri were on their way out from the Kuran estate when the figure of Ichijo Takuma approached them briskly.

"Are the two of you heading out?" The Vice-President had asked.

"We have a photo-shoot at 2.p.m. today." Shiki stated, simply.

"Good, can you two bring the twins along for the trip? They haven't had the chance to see the two of you in working mode before, and I'm sure your agent and the production crew wouldn't mind that much with them around. Akira's a real charmer." With that said Ichijo Takuma promptly gathered the twins' boys in front of them and tempted the boys into sticking onto the two models. Hence, the reason why Subaru and Akira were now posing Shiki Senri with a dozen questions pertaining to the equipments needed for the photo-shoot.

{End of Flashback}

"Uncle Shiki, what is that?" Akira asked, pointing towards the blue board standing in the middle of the room with lights surrounding it.

"That's a backdrop used for our photo-shoot today…" Shiki took a look in the direction where Akira was pointing towards, and replied.

"I see… so what kind of photo-shoot are you and Aunt Rima doing today?" The curious boy asked again.

"We are doing a photo-shoot for the spring collection of outfits featuring for the latest issue of 'Trend' magazine today." Shiki Senri answered patiently, despite Akira's incessant questions.

Subaru, meanwhile, unlike his twin was merely seated quietly on the chair nearby with the novel he was reading out in hand.

"You really enjoy reading, don't you?" The sudden sound of an oddly familiar voice caused Subaru to glance up in surprise.

"…" Subaru blinked the voice sound oddly familiar to him but he simply cannot place a name to the face of the person standing in front of him now.

"No idea who am I? Never mind, just give this to your 'Daddy' – will you?" The person said to the silver-haired boy as she handed over an invitation card of sort over to Subaru before turning on her heels and departed from site.

Once back outside the studio, she was met by disapproving eyes from her personal guard cum assistant.

"Akemi, I would most appreciate it if you could stop playing disappearing acts on me. Also, if you want to invite them to your birthday celebration next week – all you have to do is to call Zero-sama up." Wakaba Hiroshi, Sayori's elder brother and Matsushita Ayano's fiancé told the girl off in an exasperated manner.

"Well… but that won't be fun anymore, isn't it?" Fujiwara Akemi responded with a mischievous grin playing on her features before skipping back off to Studio 4 for her own share of advertisement shoot.

Fujiwara Akemi, the younger sister of Fujiwara Satomi and daughter of Zero and Ichiru's maternal uncle – Fujiwara Satoshi. A fifteen year old brunette like her elder sister but with cerulean eyes unlike her sister's brown ones – was a local celebrity just like Shiki Senri and Touya Rima. However, unlike the two of them who mainly does photo-shoots for magazines – Fujiwara Akemi was also filming TV serials sitcom shows for some local media companies. Topping it off, she's also the spokesperson for most if not all of the products produced by companies with business relations to the Fujiwara Corporation.

Each and every members of the Fujiwara Clan have their own part to play, and practically everyone in the family have double identities in the modern world. For instances, her father – Fujiwara Satoshi operated a Kendo Doujo in the prefecture of Chiba; he took in not only members of the Clan itself but also open the Doujo doors to the general public. Her elder sister, Fujiwara Satomi – a typical sixteen year old teenage girl studying in the Fujiwara Gakuen in Kyoto; was a hunter in training and atop of it happens to be the president for the Kendo Club in school.

For her – Fujiwara Akemi though, like her sister was also a hunter-in-training but at the same time she's also a rising local celebrity to the general public, and official spokesperson for Fujiwara Corporation. Working with both humans, hunters and vampires all at the same time – oddball, some likes to call her that. After all, under normal circumstances – members of the hunters' branch try to avoid dealings with the vampires branch members in general but for her case… not only she does not keep her distances, in fact she often volunteer to help them out.

Luckily for her, Fujiwara Satoshi was unlike Fujiwara Haruto – so Akemi have an easier life in general. Haruto had seen his daughter – Misaki as useless personnel due to her tendency to faint upon the sight of gruesome hunting methods, and also fainting spells upon the sight of blood. Satoshi, on the other hand, treats both Satomi and Akemi equally. He told them that the hunting skills while compulsory to learn a hand or two, does not certainly means that they must took after the hunter's line of work. In fact, they can choose to do what they want to achieve in life provided that they stick to the ground rules sets in place by the family.

"Subaru, what's that card in your hand?" Akira questioned, when he noticed his twin staring at the card in bewilderment.

"Someone told me to pass this to 'Daddy'…" Subaru responded, still frowning as he wondered why that voice sounded so familiar to him and yet he could not place a name to it.

"Hm..m…?" Akira mused as he snatched the card out from his twin's hand to study it in detail, and then his mouth twitch slightly and said.

"Birthday invitation card… I'll bet you five bucks its Aunt Akemi's handiwork again." Akira smirked before handing the card back to his twin.

"Ah…! You're right; no wonder I kept on thinking why that voice sounded so familiar!" Subaru suddenly muttered aloud when realization dawns in on him.

"…" Akira stared at his twin for a while, before shaking his head in disbelief. How could Subaru being the one whom spoke the most with Fujiwara Akemi from young, and still failed to register her voice?

"Come on, let's go – Aunt Rima and Uncle Shiki are done for the day." Akira announced, pulling his twin out from the seat and heading back to where the two night-class models are waiting for them.

Back in the Kuran's estate, Yuuki Kuran was still busy having her training lessons with Ruka Souen – on how to behave likes a lady in public. It was hard for Yuuki because active nature, but still not wanting to disappoint her beloved brother – Kaname, she was willing to work hard for it.

"Akane… how did you manage all these?" Yuuki turned pleading eyes upon Akane, wanting to know a trick or two hidden up Akane's sleeves.

"…" Akane sweat-dropped, inwardly thinking – I know I don't really resemble a typical 'lady' but I'm not that bad either, right? And then she shifted her gaze towards an exasperated looking Ruka Souen and the pitiful Yuuki Kuran. She sighed.

"Ruka-san, I guess your usual methods won't work on Yuuki. The dining etiquettes are still alright, but walking elegantly seems to be a little hard for Yuuki to manage. Why don't you try putting her in a Kimono and then get her to walk in those attires for the next few weeks to come?" Akane suggested desperate time's calls for desperate measures – she's using the Fujiwara 'training' method now.

"Eh…?!" Yuuki eyes widen in shock, while she had not had a chance to wear those kimonos before – she knew that those kinds of attires are stiff and uncomfortable like hell. How did one walk or move around in that kind of clothes – she had always wonders but that does not means she want to try it out for herself.

"Kimono… that's a good idea but where on earth are we going to get those for Yuuki-sama…? I certainly don't have any lying around." Ruka Souen responded to Akane's suggestion.

"Give me a minute." Akane said, and then she left the room only to return shortly with Risa Miyazaki, Matsushita Ayano and Wakaba Sayori in tow.

The vampire duos blinked in puzzlement, as the three new comers surrounded Yuuki for a minute before taking out measuring tape and started to measure the pureblood princess up. After that, Ruka and Yuuki watched as the trio started to call up people on their mobile phones sprouting out some measurements of sort.

Technically speaking, Sayori was the one whom reported measurements while Risa was the one whom selected colors and Ayano the one whom chose the design and of course the ordering of the Tabi (ankle-high divided toe socks) and Zori (straw slippers) to match the kimono.

Forty-five minutes later, the doorbell to the Kuran's estate sounded and Akane hurried downstairs to answer the door much to the bewilderment of the other aristocrats within the house.

"Akane, what was that in your hands?" Ichijo Takuma stared at the pile of boxes held in his cousin's grasp and asked.

"You will know later, speaking of which – can you acknowledge on the delivery order first? Tell them we will send the check over at a later date." Akane throws over her shoulders as she hurried back upstairs with the boxes in hand.

Yuuki Kuran and Ruka Souen gaped when Akane returned with the boxes in hand, especially Yuuki. Her eyes nearly fell out from the socket when she noticed the quantity of kimonos ordered by Sayori for her usage, and her eyes bulged when she noted the amount of money these kimonos costs.

"Is there really a need to go to this extent?" Ruka Souen asked, these kimonos must have cost a fortune to get – if the rumors she heard about the current market price for a 'Furisode Kimono' are true.

"Nah… no need to worry about that, it's on the tabs of Zero so we gets discount off them at a very generous rate." Akane responded with ease.

The boxes held 2 sets of 'Furisode Kimono'; 2 sets of 'Komon' and 2 sets of 'Houmougi' – a total of six sets of Kimonos; in pastel colors and matching obis. In order to high-light Yuuki's bubbly character and personality, Risa has specially taken the liberty to select pink and yellow for the kimonos colors. The patterns were of sakura blossoms, specially picked out by Ayano for Yuuki.

"Still… why is there so many of it?" Yuuki questioned, not understanding the reason – they all looked similar to her.

"Reason why we have to get three different styles of kimonos is because, they each served a purpose. For instances, the 'Furisode' are mainly used by unmarried females on formal occasions such as coming of age ceremonies or attending a wedding ceremony. The Houmougi served as the typical 'visiting' wear – and it can be used for attending tea ceremonies, parties and also weddings. The Komon, on the other hand, are mainly used for casual purposes – such as a visit to a restaurant or just to go out in town." Akane responded, quoting information off her memory bank and causing the pureblood princess of the Kuran Clan to drop her jaw in shock.

"Yuuki, chill – if you think this is bad… you should have seen the wardrobe of the Fujiwara and Hiou Clan members. That is even more extreme, we only gotten you three types of Kimonos – I bet Akane have more of such kimonos in her wardrobe back in her own time." Wakaba Sayori told her friend.

"Yes, at least we didn't think of getting you 'Iromuji' and 'Tsukesage' too…" Matsushita Ayano added on.

"Not to forget there's also the Yukata out in the market for summer usage and also the Geta to goes with it." Risa Miyazaki piped up.

"Alright, enough chattering – let's get down to work and changed Yuuki into these clothes. We really need to get her in shape for her birthday party next month, although it's not a culture for Kuran daughters to be seen wearing such attires since they are of the more westernized families… but it would be nice to break away from the culture once in a while." Akane clapped her hands for attention and spur the three girls down to work.

Upon noticing Yuuki's intention to protest, Akane added in a warning tone of voice. "Yuuki, it's either the kimono or the corset – take your pick."

Yuuki thought of the image of dressing up in a ballroom gown with corset underneath instead of her usual undergarment and shudders involuntarily. With corsets it would be hard to breathe, and with Kimono it's only the restriction of taking wide steps… and if she was to pick the lesser of the evils. It would have to be the kimonos then. With that, she resigned herself to the idea of being dressed up by the trio with Ruka Souen and Akane supervising her every move.

Date started: 19/1/2013

Date completed: 21/1/2013


	47. Chapter 46

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: This chapter would be a relaxing one, and Zero came back to the Kuran's estate… some KanZe in here. Then it's over to the birthday party for Akemi :P I'll do a time jump directly to 3 days later XD

Chapter 46 – In which Zero and Kaname reconcile…

"Today's already the third day, you reckoned Zero would really be back?" Ichijo Takuma inquired Akane discreetly while watching the twins played hopscotch in the back garden of the estate with Yuuki, who is currently taking a break from her intensive 'lady-like' training.

"Yes, he will most certainly be back tonight – I made it a point to call him this morning, making sure to emphasize on Akira's concern of his absence." Akane responded in a whisper, before she too went up front to play with the trio.

When Zero returned, it was around 7.p.m. at night – Kaname was not in sight but the twins were genuinely happy to see at least one of their parents back in sight. The reason that Akane had fed to the twins, was that Zero went to the hunter's association to settle some problems and Kaname was busy with his work in the Study and hence his unavailability to entertain the twins. The twins boys actually simply took Akane words for it, without too much of a suspicion being raised much to the surprise of one Ichijo Takuma but he was not going to press on lest letting the cat out of the bag.

"Daddy… you're finally back, how's your trip to the association? Did anyone give you problems?" Akira gushes out in concern for the silver-haired teen, stalling the said teen for a minute before answering the boy's question.

"I'm fine; the association is still in disarray. However, it's now under control – a new Chairperson has been selected for the position during last night's meeting, I heard." Zero responded, inwardly thankful that he had indeed paid a visit to the association the night after leaving the Chairman's residence within Cross Academy.

"That's good then, but father is still busy in the Study…" Akira pouted, since he had already missed his bedtime story for the past three days already.

"…Don't fret; you are bound to get your story tonight. Now I'm going in to see your father for a while, behave for Akane – okay?" Zero patted the boys' on their head before taking in a deep breath to brace himself for the upcoming conversation, as he knocked and seek entry into the pureblood's Study.

"Zero-sama…" Seiren greeted, when Kaname had finally granted his permission for the person outside his Study to enter the room.

Kaname froze slightly when he heard Seiren's greeting message, before the female vampire exited the area to grant the duos privacy to them-selves.

"I heard you haven't been showing your face outside for the past 3 days?" Zero, not one to beat around the bush, cut direct to the point as he addressed the dark-haired pureblood figure seated behind the work desk.

"Zero…" Kaname started, unsure of how to react to his newly returned lover. To be honest, when Zero failed to return that very day after storming out from the place – he had really thought that the silver-haired teen won't be coming back to him anymore. Hence, his desire to lock himself up in the Study and drowning himself with the amount of work piling on his work desk instead of heading back to his empty room for rest.

Zero Kiryuu took in his lover's haggard appearance, and sighed inwardly. Alright, perhaps the term haggard was a little too exaggerated to describe the pureblood's appearance as of current. Still, the sight of the dark rings underneath the eyes and the exhaustion reflected in those wonderful chocolate pools of orbs speak volumes. Looks like he was not the only one affected by those feelings of longing and depressing atmosphere of being away from the bonded partner… Kaname Kuran was equally affected by the 'bond' between the too.

"Kaname…I guess I should apologized for my words the other day – it was uncalled for." Zero started, breaking the awkward silence that hung between them. The next moment, he felt himself being pulled into a crushing embrace from the pureblood.

"I should apologize for clamming up on you too, I didn't mean to shut you out… it's just my instincts at work." Kaname said as he buried his head in Zero's shoulder, trying to make up all the lost times over the past few days of being away from his lover.

"…I know…I'm sorry for snapping at you too. That was also my hunter's instincts at work…I should not assume things that easily." Zero said in response, returning the embrace with equal ferocity in strength before he gasped in surprise upon feeling the fangs of Kaname piercing through the flesh of his neck again.

"Gees…Kaname, how many times must I tell you to give some warning before biting down on me." Zero muttered in annoyance before he returned the favour, and did the same thing to his lover.

Outside the Study, Seiren who was standing guard to the place finally allowed a sigh of relief to escape from her. Finally, the tension surrounding her pureblood leader was no longer in place – now she could only hoped there would be no more arguments or disagreements between those two for the next few weeks to come. One could only take that much stress at one time, let alone to keep the twins away from the moody Kaname when the other parent is not around.

Downstairs, Akane heaved a sigh of relief as she shared a look with her cousin – that's a good sign. The twins, on the other hand, shakes their head in response… judging from what was happening upstairs in the Study. Chances of them getting a story tonight was equally slim to last night, judging from past experience – there is a chance that once their father is done with their daddy; it would be daybreak already.

True to the twins' premonition, upstairs in the Study – Kaname Kuran was busy ravishing his lover to hell and back.

"Good gods, Kaname – stop!" Zero gasped, when he felt hands touching him in areas that send shivers down his spine.

"Zero, my dear… are you sure you want me to stop now?" Kaname whispered huskily as he traced kisses down his lover's torso.

"… At least, don't do it on the desk!" Zero managed to rasp out in between shaky breath from Kaname's fondling.

"As you wish, my dear…" Kaname smirked, and Zero was up in his arms heading for the sofa couch in a flash of lights.

"Damn it, Kaname – I didn't mean for you to settle for the couch either. It's going to stain – you know?!" Zero grinded out in frustration, before he sucked in another shaky breath when he felt Kaname's tongue licking his belly button.

"So what if the couch would stain, we could simply just replace it – isn't it?" Kaname whispered as he worked his magic on his wonderful Zero. There was no coherent response from the silver-haired teen then, because Zero by then was already too engrossed in the deed to be paying any attention to the words from Kaname.

By the time Zero woke from his exhaustion slumber, it was already 6.a.m. of the following day. A quick survey of his body, he noted that he was now wrapped loosely in the plain white bathrobe of a certain Kuran Prince – the body fluids from their previous activity was gone now; probably Kaname had taken the liberty to cleanse him up after he passes out from their vigorous 'exercise' from before.

Shifting slightly in his position, Zero nearly released a string of curses – the soreness of his private areas were worse than the other times after their activity in the bathroom of Kaname's room within the Moon Dormitory.

"Damn it, I know I shouldn't have let him do as he pleased last night." Zero muttered under his breath, glaring at the pureblood prince spooning up to his side fast asleep right now.

"Zero… it's still early, come back to bed." Kaname said when he felt his lover leaving his side.

"…It's early for you, not for me. I have a facility visit to go for; you can sleep in longer in my stead." Zero throws over his shoulder, as he trudge his way over to the attached bathroom and start to get himself ready for the day ahead.

Half an hour later, Zero Kiryuu emerged out from the bathroom fully clad in a plain white long sleeves button down shirt; and a pair of black long pants with a matching belt on his waist area. In his hands, he held on to a black tie which he rolled up into a ball shape and simply tucked into his left pocket of the pants.

Heading downstairs for breakfast, he was unfazed by the number of stares being directed his way. Pulling out a chair opposite to his twin – Ichiru, he was met by the sight of a near mirror image in terms of attire and outfits selected for the day.

"What's on your schedule today?" Zero asked, reaching for the jam to apply on his toast.

"Press Reception hosted by the Matsushita Motors Limited, you?" Ichiru questioned back in return.

"Facility visit to Fujiwara Electronics Holdings Private Limited." Zero responded with a sigh. Apparently, the elders in the family had wanted him to go around visiting the companies operated and under the clan members to see for him-self what kind of role would he want to partake in the family business in future.

'Well at least they didn't just throw me into one of the company and expect me to work my way up…' Zero thought.

"No wonder you are wearing that…" Ichiru commented with a smirk, knowing for a fact that his twin hated to dress in such formal attire. Given an option, Zero would rather be spotted in comfortable sweatshirts and sweatpants rather than office wear.

"I could say the same for you." Zero throws back at his twin dryly, finishing the last of his toast before he beckoned for Sayori to follow him in his departure.

Wakaba Sayori; too was dressed up in the typical office attire for today because she would have to play 'personal assistant' for the trip. Not only would Zero be doing a facility visit but also he would be meeting the top management crew for a discussion following the end of the visit as well. Seeing as Zero wasn't quite around up until yesterday – Sayori had been the one staying up the night to go through past sales and business records for said company. During the journey over to the company, Sayori would be needed to fill Zero in on the critical areas to look out for during the visit.

"Risa, keep an eye on the twins today. I'll be back by mid-day." Zero said, before he walked past the female vampire on guard duty for the day.

"Yes, Zero-sama…" Risa Miyazaki responded, monotonously.

An hour after Zero's departure from the house, Ichiru Kiryuu made his move to leave the estate with his guard – Matsushita Ayano in tow as well. Unlike Zero, Ichiru did not leave any instructions behind for Risa – since Maria Kurenai has already went back to her home the night before and hence there would be no need to inform the girl of his whereabouts.

Later on in the day, Zero was getting the boys ready for his cousin's birthday gathering when he glanced up at Kaname Kuran and asked.

"Are you certain about going with us? Need I remind you that – it's probably going to be a place with high human traffic?"

"Well… I'm quite certain I can control my blood lust easily." Kaname Kuran responded with ease.

"Yes, I know that… but you are aware that neither of your flock could be going in with us – right?" Zero stressed upon the fact that Seiren could not be following them for this trip, hoping that Kaname had an idea what he was getting himself into by agreeing to go along with the twins and him for that birthday party of his cousin.

"Of course I knew that, but don't forget that Risa Miyazaki would be tagging along us for the trip." Kaname pointed out objectively.

"Fine then, don't say I didn't warn you about the possibility of Aidou kicking up a fuss for being unable to go along for the trip." Zero muttered under his breath, as he finished with the task of checking Subaru's attire for the trip.

"Okay, done – Subaru. Now Akira, bring your shoes over – and what did I say about running with shoes-laces undone. You are going to trip yourself like this, now come over here!" Zero ordered, and Akira hurried to obey not wanting to risk irritating his 'Daddy' further. He had, after all, just been caught 'nicking' pocky stick from his beloved uncle Shiki.

Both Subaru and Akira were dressed up in polo shirts and shorts, in the typical black and white colour combination. Initially, Ichijo had suggested for them to wear something more formal for the occasions but Zero had waved him off – saying that the twins are here on temporary basis only, and that they would be back to the future sooner or later. Therefore, there would be no need to waste extra money on those formal wear at all.

Besides, even if the clothes purchased could last until their eventual birth – by then the design could jolly well be outdated already. Seeing as this was merely a birthday celebration kind of gathering, Zero had no intention to be dressing the boys up in Kimonos too because he knew the kimonos are kind of stiff and hard to get comfortable in – it's usually reserved for new year gathering over at the Fujiwara. Hence, the twins were made to dress up in casual wear instead – that's the only kind of attire the twins have in their wardrobe as of current.

"Daddy, have you gotten Aunt Akemi's present yet?" Akira asked, curiously.

"No… she'd dared to send me the invitation on a last minute basis and still expect a present from me then she is solely mistaken." Zero muttered aloud as he responded to the boy's query.

"Oh… okay…"Akira shared a look with his twin and read the same thought behind each other's eyes. No doubt, their Aunt Akemi is going to be treating them as though they are the present from their beloved 'Daddy' now.

The birthday celebration was being held not within the Chiba estate but within one of the local country club's function room. Apparently, Akemi has still stick to the ground rules sets in place by the family – never invite a vampire into their residence on voluntary basis, family related excluded. While Zero and Ichiru could be invited into the Chiba residence for the event, the same could not be said about Akemi's co-workers in the media industry. Henceforth, she opted to use one of the function room situated within one of the family operated country clubs instead.

The Kiryuu-Kuran future family of five were greeted by the sight of Fujiwara Satomi and Akemi's 'guard' – Wakaba Hiroshi first before being ushered into the event room.

"Welcome to Akemi's birthday party celebration, it's a pleasure to be finally able to meet you…Kaname-san." Fujiwara Satomi greeted, as she reached her hand out to shake the Kuran prince for a second before showing them into the inside of the room used for the hosting of the event.

"You really should thank your lucky stars, that Akemi had avoided inviting the whole family along. I didn't think you are ready for all that meeting with the Fujiwara's yet." Zero commented in a whispering tone of voice, before heading up front with the twins to greet his cousin – the birthday girl.

Akemi's birthday celebration is one full of youngsters, and therefore not much family members were around for the event. It may partially have something to do with the number of vampire guests Akemi had invited along for the event, but who is to say for certain. Either way, there's karaoke to keep the guests occupied and wonderful food catered by the club's 'Food & Beverages' department.

The twins were greatly entertained in general; and of course the both of them were being subjected to hugs and kisses from Fujiwara Akemi – herself. Thankfully, Subaru had it in him to drop the pureblood aura thing – not that it will fazed Akemi's enthusiasm but it is merely to avoid being detected by the other vampires in the same room.

Kaname is not that fortunate though, he was unfortunate enough to be recognize by the number of vampires co-workers from Akemi's media industry and had to spend half the party socializing with them until Akemi cut in between them and claimed that this is a party to celebrate her birthday and not meant for them to strengthen their ties with the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan.

"Good to see you back, but honestly – I warned you about it, didn't I?" Zero had to refrain from smirking outright upon the return of Kaname Kuran, after Akemi had kindly rescued him from a extremely enthusiastic common class vamp working in the media industry.

"I thought there would be tons and lots of hunters, not the other way round." Kaname responded, sounding slightly irked under his breath.

"There are in fact, hunters in here – for example, the trio crowding near the doorway. Those are the Igarashi, full-fledged hunters under the wing of the new Chairperson of the Association – sends over to keep track of the event tonight, most likely. Probably after they noticed the high number of vampires invited for the party…hence the Association's decision to step in. Otherwise, there should not be representative from the Association itself.

Either way aside from the Igarashi's siblings, both Satomi and Akemi are trained in hunting skills too and also Sayori and her brother – Hiroshi. Even I, myself at one point am also part of that league." Zero interjected, while keeping an eye on the twins - checking if they reached for anything that is banned from their daily diet.

"Oh…so you are saying that you are no longer part of that league now?" Kaname quirked an eyebrow up in question.

"…Not exactly, but I'm no longer under the Association's direct ruling. I have both Ichiru and myself switched under the Free-lance basis, so it's now under the ruling of Fujiwara Satoshi. Not that he would bother with the idea of sending us off on mission, since I would most likely be the one helping him with the distribution of the hunting missions and all. His attention now are mostly centred upon his Kendo Doujo, I doubt he had any intention to pay much attention on his other roles and responsibility after stepping down from it for the past 10 years or so." Zero further elaborated his meanings.

"I see…you mention doing a facility visit this morning, what's all that business about?" Kaname asked then.

"I was thinking when you were going to bring up that question… well, basically – the elders in the family wanted me to do something else aside from hunting. Free lance hunters are unlike hunters directly under the Association's ruling; missions are not that regular if you get what I mean. Anyway, they wanted me to develop an interest in something else – and preferably if I can help them out in the running of their family business. Fujiwara Corporation; Fujiwara Electronics Holdings Private Limited; Fujiwara Gakuen; Matsushita Auto-Mobile Limited; M&M Law and Legal Consultancy Agency; etc. and others. Too many for me to name in one shot, because under Fujiwara Corporation itself there's a chain of hotels; spa salons; restaurants franchising business too." Zero quoted a few off the list, and was immediately met by Kaname's look of surprise.

"All of those businesses that you named belong to the Fujiwara Clan?!" Kaname repeated, sounding awe by it all.

"Yes… some directly related, some falls under the subsidiary companies schemes, but more or less the Fujiwara holds a significant amount of shares in them." Zero responded, frowning as he tried to recall what he had read earlier on in the day from that pile of reports he had gotten from Sayori. There are still at least five or six folders of documents he had yet to gone through yet, so he hasn't quite figure out how the Clan businesses grew to this much.

"What about the Hiou's inheritance? What was included in them?" Kaname never had it in him to ask, but he did know that Zero had granted the younger twin free control of those inheritances – and now he wanted to do a comparison between his Kuran's businesses and the Hiou's to see if there are any differences.

"The Hiou's business in the outside market – would include the 'Sakura Food & Beverages Company Limited'; in which the Fujiwara holds a significant 15% shares after that marriage union between Shizuru Hiou and a fellow vampire member of the Clan – I can't recall the name, sorry. Anyway, the Hiou had dealings with Ichijo Enterprise before – but that falls under the Kurenai's grasp now. Ichiru would know more, I didn't really go into details for that side but I distinctively recalled that their dealings mainly deal with the companies from the night-society. However, while I had no idea of the exact names of those related companies with business dealings with the Hiou – I recalled them having Traditional Tea-House; and some Eco-Friendly related business out in the market. Further details, you really have to speak with Ichiru or Maria Kurenai for it – I don't have much information pertaining to it." Zero responded with a shrug.

"Oh yes, Sakura Co-operatives Limited also falls under the Hiou's business list – they deal mainly with public liability insurance and operate supermarkets? Sorry, I can't remember exactly but I do know anything with Sakura has relations to the Hiou in one way or another." Zero added as an afterthought, when his eyes landed upon the paper bag of titbits in one corner of the room with the logo of 'SC Super-Mart' imprinted on the bag itself.

"I see…" Kaname made a knowing sound, as he made it a point to start reading up his family business profile as soon as possible. He had yet to check through the business dealings portion, when it was managed under the hands of Ichijo Asato since he was apparently swamped by other duties that was more important than business at that point of time.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Zero – the person in charge of running the club have popped by for a visit and was offering to give you a tour of the club itself." The sudden sound of Fujiwara Akemi piping up, draw both Kaname and Zero's attention away from their conversation in progress.

"Okay, I'll be over shortly." Zero told his cousin, before sending a look over to the pureblood to keep an eye out on the twins.

"Father, where's Daddy?" A few minutes after Zero excused himself to go on a tour about the club; one of the twins came over to Kaname and asked.

"He went on a tour of the place with the owner of the club." Kaname responded, while the twins commented.

"Ah… reckon it's now Daddy's turn to socialize." Akira mused, just now it was their Father socializing with the co-workers of their Aunt Akemi's and now it was their Daddy's turn to socialize with the management team of the club.

"Speaking of which, have you seen Uncle Ichiru yet?" Akira voiced out to his twin.

"What…? No, not yet – I bet he's still stuck in traffic. Ayano-san has not arrived yet, so I believed the press reception over at the Matsushita Auto-Mobile Limited was somehow delayed." Subaru responded, as he allowed his senses to run wild around the place trying to see if his uncle's aura could be detected anywhere.

In the meantime, back in the Kuran's estate – a certain blue eyed blond aristocrat was indeed kicking up a fuss about being unable to tag along for the trip. Apparently, Kaname had taken the possibility of Aidou's temper into consideration and had snuck out together with Zero and the twins when the blond was in the bathroom.

"Mou…why didn't you guys stop Kaname-sama from attempting something reckless likes this?!" Aidou fumed as he ranted and raved about his leader not even bringing Seiren along on the trip.

"…Aidou, I don't think Kaname would appreciate us butting in on his business." Ichijo Takuma pointed out, objectively.

"Yes, and technically – Kaname did bring someone along with him. Risa went along with them on the trip." Akatsuki Kain pointed out helpfully to his cousin.

"Still, Risa is a Common Class – what happened if something cropped up?" Aidou argued.

"Even if something were to crop up, I'm sure Kaname-sama can handle himself and besides nobody would be that stupid to barge in the event uninvited. Besides, this event is by RSVP only – I don't think even if we went along, we would be allowed entry into the venue." Ruka Souen pointed out, plainly.

"Yes, and also Akane would be there together with them – nothing could go wrong." Shiki Senri added.

"If it makes you feel better, you can think of it this way – Kaname-sama left you behind to protect Yuuki-sama." Touya Rima piped up, and successfully ceasing the agitation in the blue-eyed blond aristocrat.

"Speaking of Yuuki-sama, Aidou – I thought today's her routine lesson day for familiarizing herself with the cultures of the vampires with you?" Akatsuki Kain brings up the subject then, distracting his cousin from sulking further.

Their beloved Kaname-sama has been spending most of his time on the work required to deal with the aftermath of the council events, and also sorting through his own inheritances. The rest of the time was spent generally with the elder Kiryuu and the twins, leaving Yuuki to them – the aristocrats to handle.

Ruka was assigned with the task of teaching and coaching Yuuki on how to be a elegant lady in public with Akane as her assistant; Akatsuki and Aidou were asked to guide and teach Yuuki the way of the vampires' culture and heritage. Leaving Ichijo Takuma, Shiki Senri and Touya Rima to help the pureblood out in the 'politics' related matters. Seiren was as usual doing her guard duty with Risa Miyazaki standing in for her whenever she was assigned with other duties at hand. The two human girls currently residing under one roof with them were generally seen busy involved in discussion with the Kiryuu twins, or helping the elder Kiryuu and Akane in the kitchen chores.

At least, that was how the arrangement was like since their arrival at the Kuran's estate. Weekly roster was set in place pertaining to the purchases trip to town, while household chores duties were split evenly among the Kiryuu siblings; Akane and the two human girls. Since, neither of the aristocrats had any idea on culinary skills…nor are they really capable to handle cleaning chores about the place.

Date started: 21/1/2013

Date completed: 22/1/2013


	48. Chapter 47

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: In this chapter, I bring you the party to introduce Yuuki officially into the night-society. Time jump ahead for 1 month period, and no Zero would not be introduce as the 'Queen' – you will see the reason why in here XD

Chapter 47 – Yuuki Kuran official debut into the Night-Society.

Yuuki's torturing sessions dubbed by the girl herself officially came to a close with the arrival of her birthday date. Dressed up in her pink 'Furisode' Kimono, courtesy of her best friend – Wakaba Sayori's help; since she still had no idea how the attire should be worn… Yuuki braced herself for the moment to arrive.

"Yuuki, you can do it – just relax and take a deep breath before going down." Sayori encouraged, they were now in the girl's shared room with Akane Kiryuu waiting for the moment of Yuuki's arrival to come.

"Yori-chan, sorry that I had to make you stayed behind with me…" Yuuki apologized, since tonight is a vampire event. Her brother, Kaname had given the permission for the twins and Akane to stay the night over at Zero's childhood home together with Ichiru and Matsushita Ayano. Apparently, it would not be wise for any outsiders to know of the future trio's presence – it was one thing to let the night-class students knows of it, but absolutely another to have the parents' of these students discovering the trio's existence.

Initially, Sayori would have to be over there too, but because of Yuuki's insecurities – she had pleaded for Sayori to stay behind for morale support.

"It would be fine; Zero would be staying behind for today too – so it would be alright." Sayori patted Yuuki comfortingly on the back, as the time comes for the girl to make her entrance into the night-society world.

Downstairs in the front hall area, Kaname and the night-class aristocrats were busy greeting guests for the event. Zero, on the other hand, stood by the corner and observed the scene – those whom recognized him blanched and faltered slightly in their step before recovering themselves. Among them, included parents of Aidou Hanabusa… the man's nearly had his eyes felling out upon the sight of Zero Kiryuu's presence.

"Hanabusa, care to explain why he's here?!" The father of the blue-eyed blond asked in a harsh whisper when he managed to grab hold of his precious son.

"Huh…?" Aidou blinked in bewilderment for a minute before catching on to his father's underlying meaning behind the words, and then he flicked his eyes over to the corner where Kiryuu Zero stood then back to his beloved pureblood leader before he shrugged and told his father to wait patiently and that all will be reveal in good time.

For Zero Kiryuu, he was really thankful that Akane's charm of masking one's vampire aura works brilliantly on him too. After all, most of the guests invited for this event knew him as the descendants of the hunter's lineage and that he was a fellow guardian for the Cross Academy. Some knew him as ex-human turned by Shizuka Hiou, the last thing he needs for these people to know was that his rank on the vampire's hierarchy had suddenly make a rise to the Level B standards.

This is a party for Yuuki to blend into the Night-Society, not for him and besides he had no intention to lay out his family history out in the open for all to know. It was bad enough to reveal them to the night-class members; he does not want it to be public knowledge. Imagine the horrors or shell-shock reactions of the vampire society once they discovered the reason behind how he – an ex-human suddenly rises to the second in rank on the vampires hierarchy chart.

Inwardly, Zero was absolutely grateful that the Kurenai are related to the Hiou Clan – at least, nobody was wondering what happen to the fortunes of the Hiou following Shizuka's death. Last thing he needs right now was for the aristocrats of the vampire society to discover that the Kiryuu had laid claim onto at least 35% of the Hiou's fortunes.

"A very warm welcome to the lot of you specially making time to come over for this event, may I have the pleasure to introduce to everyone – my beloved sister; the pureblood princess of the Kuran Clan. Yuuki Kuran…" Kaname started to address the guests at exactly 8.p.m. on the dot, in the evening hours.

Yuuki took a deep breath as she gathered up her wits and took the first step down the stairs, careful to take small steps – she had no intention to fall and make a bigger fool of herself in front of these guests.

"Relax; remember that I'm right behind you." Wakaba Sayori whispered to her jittery friend, she supposed she could understand why Yuuki was so jittery. Her friend was worrying about disappointing the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan and the whispering between the guests did nothing to soothe her friend's haywire nerves.

Following Yuuki's entry into the party, the guests' reactions were spontaneous. Whispering, chattering among them-selves were one of the main reaction to Yuuki's appearance as the pureblood princess of the Kuran Clan, these are the mild ones. Zero Kiryuu allowed his eyes to scan the surrounding, and landed his eyes on one particular noble who actually dropped his glass of wine in shock.

Kishimoto Hideo – son and heir to the Kishimoto Incorporation; dealing with the manufacturing of microchips for computers and electronic devices. A major flirt and playboy well-known in the red-light district of Japan; but still highly sought after in the outside world. Said vampire was now gaping at Yuuki, and Zero could only guess the reason why.

Kaname Kuran kept his eyes on his silver-haired lover standing in one corner of the room from time to time; he was currently going around introducing Yuuki to the guests. A frown marred his features when he noticed his lover staring at another man amidst the crowd of guests. Following Zero's direction of gaze, he found himself staring into the face of Kishimoto Hideo and his face darkens a shade almost immediately.

"Kaname-niisan…?" Yuuki's soft uttering of his name jerked him back to the task at hand, which was socializing.

"Nothing… come on, let's move on." Kaname responded, as he led Yuuki away from the father of Ruka Souen and shifted towards the next guest in line to introduce Yuuki to.

"Hanabusa, was that the reason why that ex-human was here today?" Aidou Hanabusa was jolted back to reality, when he heard his father questioning him.

There was a moment of silence, before the blue-eyed blond caught on to the meaning behind his father's words. Distractedly, he nodded and said. "Well, yes… that's one of the reasons."

Inwardly, Aidou Hanabusa was thinking his father would be in for a big shock once the announcement of Zero Kiryuu being the bonded partner to their beloved pureblood leader – Kaname Kuran came out in the open. That and also the fact that Zero Kiryuu was no longer an ex-human, but a Level B just like them.

His eyes followed after the figure of one Wakaba Sayori silently, how he wished he could escort the girl towards where Zero Kiryuu was standing instead of being here watching. Still, he knew he could not risk detection from his own parents' – unless Kaname-sama gives him an open order to make a move in Wakaba Sayori's direction.

Wakaba Sayori sighed inwardly as she caught sight of a pair of unmoving gaze staring right in her direction, while she had promised Akatsuki Kain to speak with the blue eyed blond some days ago. She had yet to find time for it, the last few days was like a whirlwind to her. Aside from submitting written homework to the school through internet means, and attending classes via the E-learning portal she had other things on hand to deal with, too.

Among these other duties to attend, included keeping her friend – Yuuki Company and guiding said girl in the proper manner to present her-self in public when dressed up in the traditional Kimono. Unlike the western style way of doing curtsy move, the traditional Kimono restricted one's movement and hence the typical way of greeting guest would be bowing. Aside from guiding Yuuki along with the pureblood princess' etiquettes lessons, she would also need to help Zero in sorting out information pertaining to the business of the Fujiwara Clan. Between schoolwork, assisting Yuuki and aiding Zero – her free time was practically slim to none.

"Oh well… tonight probably won't be good for that kind of talk too – wouldn't want to risk detection from the Aidou family anyway…" Sayori mumbled to herself, as she ventured over to where Zero stood.

In the meantime, over at the old residence area of the Kiryuu family – Ichiru was gazing up at the Sakura Tree standing tall outside of their house in reminisce. This had been where he had first met Shizuka Hiou, and this was the same place he had gathered up his wits and approached her asking for the former to bring him along with her after she literally murdered off his parents.

Inside the house, Akane and the twins were busy exploring the house – the Zero from their own time-frame had refused to set foot in here and so they never did have a chance to see for them-selves how the place had looked like.

"Subaru, keep an eye on Akira – do not let him touch anything randomly. For all you know, it might be dangerous to vampires in general. After all, this was the house of a hunter." Akane reminded, as the twins took on to the idea of exploring.

"Of course, I would do that." Subaru throws over his shoulder, as he made a move to tail after his younger twin. Matsushita Ayano, meanwhile, was out front placing an order for their dinner through local delivery service.

The twins' explored room after room, trying to visualize their beloved 'Daddy' childhood days and fitting in images basing on what they'd learnt from their 'Daddy' and Uncle Ichiru from the tales they had related to them previously.

"Boys, what are you two doing by holing up in there?" Ichiru Kiryuu questioned, after taking it upon himself to go in search for the missing twins once the time for dinner comes round.

"We are looking at pictures." Akira responded bubbly and cheerfully.

"Pictures…?" Ichiru blinked, and then he followed the gaze of Subaru and landed his eyes on the photo-albums lying about the floor.

"Ah…I see, why don't the two of you come out for food first? Bring along the albums, I'll show you who's who later on after dinner." Ichiru addressed the two boys, his tone soft.

"Okay…" Both boys' nodded obediently, and Subaru hurried to gather up the albums in his hands as he made his way out from the room.

Ichiru waited for the two boys' to exit the room, before taking another look at the room in general before shutting the door close behind him. That was the room of his late parents, the thought of his parents caused a complicated look to flicker in his eyes before it soothe over to nothing. It was no secret that his parents' favour his elder twin more than him, because it is the truth that Zero had the flair for hunting and not him.

Despite how his mother had tried to treat them equally, but when the moment came for them to start their hunter training lessons – the differences between Zero and he was quite obvious. The training lessons with Yagari Touga was tough, and during these period – he would always collapse from fatigue and not to forget falling sick once in every two weeks. Eventually, it drives Yagari Touga to the extent of simply going up to his parents' and announced that he, Ichiru Kiryuu was no material for being hunter.

From then onwards, his hunter training comes to a stop completely and he stayed home all day with his parents. Since he was not involved in the training program, he ended up being the neglected twin as each time Zero came back from the lessons – their parents' would fret over Zero more so than before. The feeling of envy, the green eyed monster stepped into his life then –driving him to the extent of being cold and unfeeling to his parents' death by Shizuka Hiou's hand later on.

Coming back to this place filled him with complicated feelings; each and every corner of this house reminded him of something; the good and the bad. With a sigh, Ichiru shook himself out from his mood and approached the twins with a smile on his features. Dinner was taken in peace and silence, and then came the story-telling with pictures time. The album was mainly full of pictures with him and Zero in it, but occasionally pictures of their parents too.

"Now this is your grandmother Yukari and grandfather Kaoru…" Ichiru told the twins as he gestured to a picture of his parents in the album.

"Wow… she looks just like Akane!" Akira exclaimed in awe.

"Correction, she was born to the world first – so it should be Akane resembling her and not the other way round." Ichiru kindly corrected the boy.

The rest of the night was spend with Ichiru telling the twins stories of how their grandparents' off the Kiryuu side were like, and eventually the twins ended up dozing off on the sofa couch in the living room area.

"Sleep tight, my dear nephews." Ichiru whispered, as he reached for a quilt and put over them shielding them from the cold air seeping in from the open window ways. With that, he went back out front and contents himself with the task of staring at the Sakura Tree again.

During the party to introduce Yuuki into the night-society, Kaname was swamped by the vast numbers of proposals seeking for a union with the Kuran Clan – again. Only this time, he received not only a proposal for himself but also for Yuuki. Eventually, he throws out the excuses that he had just retrieved back his inheritances and would generally likes to have some time sorting them out before considering the possibility of settling down.

For Yuuki, he used the excuse of her needing time to adjust and adapted back to the life of a pureblood before contemplating on the issue. With that, Kaname basically fled the area remember to take Yuuki along with him and then he went back upstairs to the Study to sought refuge while leaving Ichijo Takuma behind to handle the rest of the situation.

Deciding to leave the crowd of guests to the capable hands of Ichijo Takuma, Zero Kiryuu also attempted to make a move to leave the area – heading for the stairs. However, before he could leave the place – he was met by the sight of Risa Miyazaki being harassed by an unknown guest. Judging from the look on the female's face, she was absolutely irritated by the conversation taking place but for some reasons choose not to stalk off from the site.

"Risa, is anything the matter there?" Zero spoke up, his tone sounding loud and clear catching many guests' attention as they all turned towards the direction of Risa Miyazaki.

"No… nothing's wrong, Zero-sama!" Risa responded, as she finally had enough of that 'guest' harassment and make a move to remove herself forcefully from said man.

"Risa! Was that the proper way to speak to your father?" The man loses his temper, as he snarled at the auburn haired vampire girl. Behind Risa, Zero's features cleared and give way to realization of the man's identity. '_So that was her father, and here I thought he seem a little familiar looking to me…_' Zero thought.

Risa Miyazaki bristled in anger, that man had the audacity to pull rank on her? Who the hell does he thinks he is? He stood by and watched on in silence when his wife bullied her mother, and then treated her as though she was nothing. When she left house, nobody bothered to say anything in response and now he had the guts to waltz in here using her as an offering to the new lord of the Kuran Clan?!

Zero took one look at Risa's face and knew he had to do something fast, before the girl snapped completely and all hell breaks loose.

"Pardon my intrusion in this, but perhaps I should remind you something. Risa might be your daughter, but if my memory served me right – you had relinquished your rights and guardianship of her to another when she left home about 8 years ago?" Zero intervened, bringing a cease fire between the father and daughter.

"This is my family business; I don't see why I would have to explain my reasons to you." The man replied tightly as he kept his glare on Risa's face unwaveringly.

"Family business…? Since you put it in that manner, then it gives me all the rights to poke my nose into this issue. Risa Miyazaki is not only your daughter, but also the daughter of Fujiwara Ami and grand-daughter of Fujiwara Hayate. Whereas, I am the son of the late Fujiwara Yukari – that would makes me Risa's cousin twice removed off the family branch, I think. Regardless of it all, my point here was that – are you sure you want to go up against the members of the Fujiwara Clan?" Zero continues calmly, his tone void of emotions as he eyed the man coldly in the eyes.

"…" The man wavered slightly, but still did not budge just yet and Zero pressed on with his next words.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, I've heard the Miyazaki had the intention to set up a publishing firm or sort and was looking forward to the idea of partnering up with Chiba TV to do a collaboration of some magazines projects? Need I remind you again of the biggest shareholder in Chiba TV?" Zero left the sentence hanging, waiting for the man to pick up his subtle hints dropped along the way.

The man blanched and then turned a pale shade of white, before spluttering unintelligently and stalked off from the venue site in a huff.

"Sayori, walk him out and make sure that he did not try to attempt anything stupid. Kindly remind him what would be the consequences if such events were to repeat in future." Zero instructed, shifting his eyes to the hazel brown haired human girl amidst the crowd of vampires.

"Yes, Zero-sama…" Wakaba Sayori responded calmly, despite the number of eyes staring in her direction.

Once Sayori left the area tailing Risa's father, Zero told the auburn haired vampire female to head back upstairs and keep Yuuki Company. He knew the guests were whisperings among themselves, but he could hardly give a damn. Turning on his heels, he exited from the site – leaving the green eyed blond vampire to deal with the onslaught of questions that was to come in time.

"Hanabusa, why didn't you mention anything about that 'guardian' was related to the Fujiwara?!" The father of Aidou Hanabusa turned towards his silent son and demanded for an answer out of him.

"…I didn't know until recently." Aidou responded, inwardly wondering why his father was kicking up a big fuss about it.

Upstairs on the second storey, Seiren knocked on the Study door to seek entry. Once granted permission, she wasted no time in informing the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan that there are a few aristocrat clan head seeking his presence in the lounge for a talk.

"I see, I shall be out in a while time. Speaking of which, have the guests left for the night already?" Kaname asked.

"More or less, Ichijo Takuma is currently seeing them to the gates personally as of current." Seiren responded, matter-of-factly.

"Well, Zero – I'll see you in a while. Are you sure you don't want to join me in the lounge?" Kaname Kuran throws at his silver-haired lover seated on the sofa couch in the Study.

"There's no reason for me to be there, isn't it? I bet the talk's gonna be something relating to the council, it would be best if I am not around. Top rule of the Fujiwara Clan, never involved in any activities of the council and association alike… and second thing, in case you've forgotten I'm also a hunter. I highly doubt they would welcome me in their presence, the party just now was an exception – they would be seeing it as a reassurance act towards Yuuki and probably as an observer for the event on behalf of the association." Zero Kiryuu pointed out objectively.

"Alright then, I'll be back in a while." Kaname eventually agreed to Zero's words and left the silver-haired teen alone in the Study to wait for his return.

Kaname arrived back at the Study approximately an hour later, to find his silver-haired lover still seated on the couch but the only difference was that the teen had something else on hand. Zero was halfway through the annual report of the 'Fujiwara Corporation' then, when he detected Kaname's presence in the room with him.

"Done with your second part of the socializing process already?" Zero commented, placing aside the report after marking down the page he was at with a pencil.

"Yes…you are still going through the report?" Kaname commented, upon the sight of the folder now resting on Zero's lap.

"Of course, I've to read through the past 5 years records for the corporation and I'm only done with the period from 2008 to 2010. I've yet to touch on the report for 2012." Zero responded in a deadpanned manner.

"How about giving it a rest tonight?" Kaname suggested, as he took a seat next to his silver-haired lover tracing his hands up and down the torso of Zero in a suggestive manner.

"No… Need I remind you that we have an agreement about that?" Zero said in a firm-like manner, this was one of his terms laid down on the verbal agreement between them when they patch things up a month ago.

Thrice in a week and no more than that – Kaname is an insatiable git, after the second time he passes out from their nightly activities in exhaustion. Zero had placed his foot down on coming up with an agreement of sort, if not one of these days he's going to collapse from the exhaustion due to regular sexual activities with the pureblood and he would rather not have that at all.

"… Zero…" Kaname started, with the intention in mind to persuade his lover into making an exception for tonight.

"Kaname, I said no and I meant it. Besides, we would be having a dinner with my uncle tomorrow. I would very much appreciate it if I could hold myself up in perfect condition then." Zero interjected, throwing a sharp look in the pureblood's direction.

"How about we do a switch tonight?" Kaname took a deep breath, and broach the subject again.

"What…?" Zero Kiryuu snapped his eyes up in shock; certainly Kaname was not that desperate for sex to be bringing it to this extent – right? To be even willing to bottom for the first time ever, and so Zero stared at the pureblood prince unmoving for a few minutes before he said.

"Are you sure about that? You are willing to be submissive for once?" Zero stared at Kaname for several minutes, trying to gauge if the man was serious or merely just pulling his legs for fun.

Date started: 22/1/2013

Date completed: 23/1/2013


	49. Chapter 48

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: Continue from where I left off last chapter, I know I'm bad but well… I'm running out of time so XDDD

Chapter 48 – Meeting the in-laws!

Kaname Kuran winced when the slightest movements of his body caused pain to wreck through his system, he felt sore all over his torso and particularly in his lower part of the body. Inwardly, he wondered if Zero was having every intention of taking revenge on him last night when he offered to be on the bottom for a change.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Zero smirked inwardly as he questioned his lover, the pureblood prince still look a little 'out' of it but judging from that wince he caught on the man's face a while ago – he dared say that soreness is the only description that fits Kaname's current plight.

"What do you think?" Kaname responded his tone flat as he threw a look of annoyance over at the silver-haired hunter.

"You had it easy; I only do you once – if you are already this sore, think about my situation back then. You took me thrice in a row without break on my very first time with you, compared the two and you tell me who is more pitiful." Zero throws back at Kaname Kuran, dryly and in a mock-like manner.

"…" Silence was the only response from Kaname, while he did enjoyed the sex last night – the pureblood decided that he prefer to be the dominating one in the relationship. Although, he had to admit Zero had more self-control than he does on himself. Not only was Zero considerate enough to do him only once last night, he was also considerate enough to not leave hickey marks all over his body knowing that his pride would be wound if any of his followers had noticed the marks. Therefore, Zero only marked him in places whereby nobody would notice and could be easily hidden by his clothes.

"Just how long do you intend to lie in bed and not move a single inch?" Zero arched an eyebrow up in question, he highly doubt that the pureblood prince was that tender to not be able to withstand soreness of such mild level as compared to the ones he was usually subjected to after a night of sexual activities.

"…"

Zero sighed, obviously Kaname was not a morning person and the discomfit after their last night activity is not helping. Giving in, Zero addressed the Kuran heir and said.

"I've drawn you a bath in the bathroom already, a warm bath would do you good – it will help to ease the soreness between your legs. I don't know about you, but I am quite certain that I had a good control of my urge so I didn't really do you that much damage. The dinner is set at 7.p.m. tonight at my uncle's place, now is only 9.a.m. – you have more than enough time to get yourself back up in perfect condition. I shall leave you to your own privacy now." Zero announced, as he approached the silent pureblood and pecked the former gently on the forehead before leaving the room.

"Morning Zero…" Akane greeted cheerfully when she saw Zero stepping into the kitchen.

"Morning…, what time did you people get in here?" Zero asked, he was quite certain when he retired for the night with Kaname – the trio was still at his childhood home.

"Around 6.a.m. this morning…our dear uncle Ichiru received a call from Maria Kurenai and went off in a rush. So Ayano and I hurried to call in the driver to drive us back here before the twins woke up and find their uncle missing." Akane explained.

"So I gathered the twins are still sleeping now?" Zero double-confirmed next.

"Yes, but I think they would be waking soon. They slept rather early last night and didn't wake in the middle of the night at all…" Akane added, because recently the twins sometimes will slept for three hours then wake and create havoc for some time before going back to sleep again.

"I'll check on them in a while time, so did anything happen last night over there?" Zero questioned as he brew some coffee for his own consumption.

"Nothing much, we were just looking at photos and all – Ichiru told the twins some old tales about your parents…and then he spends the hours staring at the Sakura Tree outside the house for the whole night." Akane answered, matter-of-factly.

"He did, didn't he?" Zero mused aloud to no one in particular.

Zero knew Ichiru would most likely be reminiscing about Shizuka Hiou for the whole night once he went back to their childhood home, because Zero knew the sight of Sakura Tree reminded him of the same thing. Unlike Ichiru's – his memory of the woman was nothing pleasant; because it would be full of how their parents' were killed by the 'mad blooming princess' of the Hiou Clan. Hence, for Zero's constant dislike of going back home.

Half an hour later, when Akane noticed Kaname Kuran walking down the stairs heading for the dining room – her eyes took in how careful the man was with his steps and end up having to bite the inside of her cheeks to prevent laughing aloud. Looks like last night was the first time her future adoptive parents had does a switch in routine, with Zero topping Kaname instead.

Zero, having caught sight of the mirth lurking in the depths of Akane's eyes – shot her a warning look. Kaname was self-conscious enough already, no point irking him further. The pureblood is a very private man; likewise it was the same with him. If Kaname knew what was going through Akane's mind, the girl would sure be 'in' for it. Thankfully, this morning the house was quite empty to begin with.

Yuuki was most likely tired out from the party last night, and was now in the midst of her beauty sleep. Sayori had taken Risa out together with her, probably to the archery club for some work-out in order to vent off some steam. Aidou had most likely tagged along on the trip, while his cousin and Ruka were running groceries errant in town. Shiki and Touya – the two models most likely was sleeping in late today. Ichiru and Ayano, like what Akane mentioned earlier on were on their way over to the Kurenai. Seiren knew this would not be a good time to make her presence known. So, yeah – the 'family' of three were on their own now.

Brunch was carried out in silence, since the twins were still sleeping away – there are no trouble makers this morning. Akane was more than willing to keep her comments to herself, she have no death wish on her list yet. She might have the guts to poke fun at Zero after his routine nightly activity with Kaname Kuran, but she dared not attempt anything of that sort when it was the other way around.

"Where's Aidou anyway?" Akane started, finding the silence unbearable – she was used to that blue eyed blond popping up at the most inappropriate timing that she actually finds it weird for that guy to not be around.

"He tagged along Risa and Sayori on their trip to the archery club." Zero answered with ease.

"…In the board daylight?" Akane questioned skeptically, previously he was yapping on and on about the hot weather when he was out to do an errant with Akatsuki and herself and yet he was now tagging along the two girls to the archery club without complaint?

"Yes, it's not in his nature but I gathered – he would do anything for the sake of Sayori. Speaking of which, something needs to be done about that…" Zero answered truthfully, he was no idiot – he had seen how Aidou Hanabusa was always staring at his 'assistant' and he had confronted Sayori about it, in fact. The girl's response was quite similar to his thoughts about the situation, and it vexed him to no end.

"What are you two yapping on about?" Kaname Kuran finally spoke up, not wanting to be out of the loop for something that concerns a fellow member of his flock.

"Apparently, a certain blue eyed blond had a crush on one Wakaba Sayori." Zero answered in a deadpanned manner.

"To put it a crush was too mild, if it's anything like what I've seen back in my own time era – I'll say he spend his lifetime pining for someone impossible to have in his life." Akane cut in blatantly.

"What do you mean by that?" Kaname directed his gaze towards Akane then, and the sandy-haired vampire girl precedes on to relay the tale of one Aidou Hanabusa that she observed and knew from her own time period.

By the time Akane was done with her tale, both Zero and Kaname were completely speechless by the situation.

"Would it actually escalate down to that point at all?" Zero asked, curious to know how Akane was viewing the current situation at hand.

"It had a very high possibility of turning out the same way if something was not done to rectify it in time. As of current, from what I've heard – Akatsuki was saying something about Aidou turning down prospective match-making sessions that the lady of the Aidou clan was trying to fix him up with. Also, whenever the name Wakaba Sayori was brought up for conversation between Akatsuki and Aidou – the latter would sure clam up like a shell and refused to discuss anything of that sort. It was worrying the fire wielding vampire to no end." Akane commented truthfully.

"What do you suggest to solve the problem at hand then?" Kaname asked next.

"Send Aidou to keep an eye out on Yuuki, and to be her personal guard or something. As long as he had something to keep him occupy, it would lessen his time spend on observing Wakaba Sayori. I would suggest roping Yuuki in about this, making sure to let her know that the attraction between Aidou and Sayori must be cut off at all costs and what would be the final outcome if this were to carry on." Akane said, and then she turned towards Kaname and added as an afterthought.

"I reckoned that the head of the Aidou clan had once again brought up the issue the possibility of joining a union between the Aidou and the Kuran Clan?"

"Surely, you don't mean to put them together – do you?" Kaname raised an eyebrow up in a questioning manner, once he caught on to the underlying meaning behind the girl's words.

"It's just one of the suggestion, and come on – obviously, you cannot honor your end of the previous engagement with Yuuki now. Matching her up with another random guy that comes along would not sit well with you, so why not pick someone whom you know by the back of hands?" Akane responded, in a logical and analytical manner.

"I'll think it over…" That was all Kaname was willing to respond after Akane's words, he figured he would want to run the suggestion by Yuuki first. He does not feel like forcing Yuuki into a situation, if the girl herself did not wish for it.

"You know, I agree with Akane – fixing Aidou up with Yuuki just might work out the way we wanted it to be. Yuuki is close with Sayori, and I am certain Aidou knew why he couldn't be with Sayori – that was why he never makes any move to pursue the girl and merely watched on by the sidelines. Anyway, coming back to the topic at hand – feelings could most definitely be nurtured. For instances, between you and me – what we used to have was mutual hatred for one another… if people like us could end up together with time, I don't see how Aidou and Yuuki could not. After all, their relationship with one another was nothing like ours – it cannot be anything worst than merely maintaining a union based on friendship." Zero told the pureblood later, when they retreated to the Study to continue their respective work.

"You seem quite keen on the idea, why is that?" Kaname quirked an eyebrow up in question as he regarded his otherwise cool and unfazed lover.

"Anything to get Yuuki away from that Kishimoto Hideo guy..." Zero muttered aloud, a dark look flashing on his features when he recalled the conversation between the father and son of the Kishimoto Incorporation last night.

"Was that the guy you were staring at for the whole of last night during the party?" Kaname piped up, recalling how irritated he was when he noticed Zero's unwavering gaze on that particular man last night.

"Yes, and before you asked – I am not attracted to him in any sense. The only urge I get when I stared at him was to shoot him into oblivion." Zero throws out before Kaname could start behaving like a jealous freak again.

"You seemed to detest him with a passion, why?" Kaname pressed on, curious to know the reason behind Zero's irritation for that Kishimoto dude.

"He spends nights prowling the red light district looking for potential prey, and he's well-known for his womanizer ways of life. I would not be surprised if he has more bastard children out there in the market than I could keep track of. Not only was he a womanizer but also a pedophile; I remembered a time whereby Ichiru and myself was undergoing hunter training – Master was chasing after a Level E who ventured into that district.

Not wanting to let us being tainted by the acts in the red light district, he told the two of us to wait two alleys away before the district started. Then out of nowhere this jerk came about and tries to hit on Ichiru, and we were both six years old or were it seven back then. Thank goodness, Makoto came about and kicked him in the shins – throwing him out from the alleyway. Still, it was enough to send Ichiru into a hyperventilation mode." Zero growled upon the sheer memory of that event, while Kaname's features took on a shade of darkness too.

Inwardly, Kaname Kuran vowed to drive the Kishimoto family into bankruptcy and probably take over their business in time. Pulling Zero into his embrace hurriedly, the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan took a moment to comfort himself that nothing damaging had been done to his precious Zero and that the timely arrival of Sawashiro Makoto had saved them before more damage could be done.

"Akira, are you quite done yet?" Subaru knocked on the attached bathroom to his shared room with his twin.

"I'm coming, give me another five minutes." Akira called out to his elder twin; he was now standing on a stool facing the mirror in the bathroom sorting through his hair. He wanted to be on his very best appearance for the dinner tonight at the Chiba residence of the Fujiwara.

"Gods, you are so vain – do you know that? For pete's sake, you are only six – nobody is going to comment if you are having a bad hair day, you know?" Subaru Kiryuu rolled his eyes at his twin's words, apparently Akira wanted to gel his hair up so that it won't be seen falling all over the place. For that purpose alone, his brother had sneak into their uncle Aidou's room and take the liberty to 'borrow' the former hair gel without seeking permission first.

Kaname and Zero were waiting downstairs for the twins' arrival, but when the time neared for their departure – the boys' were still not here yet. Zero decided to head back upstairs and see for himself what the boys' are up to.

"Subaru, I see that you are ready but why aren't you downstairs yet?" Zero asked when he looked into the open door-way of the twins' shared room.

"I wanted to use the toilet, but Akira was hogging it to himself." Subaru muttered aloud, trying to keep himself from sounding whiny.

"…Why is he hogging the bathroom then?" Zero prompted.

"He wanted to gel his hair, says it would look more presentable in that manner and that only then he would not risk disgracing the Kuran's namesake or something." Subaru rolled his eyes at his twin's words.

"…I'll handle him; you can use the bathroom in your father's room instead." Zero told the silver-haired boy; before he proceeded on to knock on the bathroom which Akira was hogging on for himself.

"Akira, by the count of five – I want the door to be open. I'm sure you don't want me to knock the door down – right?" Zero warned, and then started to count.

Akira yelped in response, and hurried to open the door for his 'Daddy' entry without too much of a protest. Zero took in Akira's appearance, and found his eyebrow twitching uncontrollably. The boy was dressed up in a piece of white plain button down short sleeves shirt, with a pair of black jumper shorts. Definitely attire suitable for a dinner outside, but with that gel hair in sight – it makes Akira looking like some kid who is going on stage to perform.

"Are you done?" Zero sighed aloud as he asked, no point changing Akira's style now – they were kind of running late already.

"Yes, Daddy." Akira beamed up at him in response.

"Then let's go, and do return the hair gel to your uncle Aidou later on in time. Unless you want him to chase after you with his ice dagger again…" Zero told the boy of six, before lifting the boy up in his arms and proceeds to leave the room. The smell of cologne probably one of Ichijo Takuma hits his nose, and he had to inwardly agree with Subaru's words – about Akira being vain, that is.

Subaru, on the other hand, was dressed casually in a white polo shirt, with brown shorts and matching outer coat. When Zero emerged downstairs with Akira in his arms, Akane Kiryuu took one look at the younger twin and promptly commented.

"Good gods, Akira – you are just going for a dinner at your Aunt Akemi's home… not to a posh restaurant for some high class dinner. Is it necessary to dress yourself up to this extent?"

"Akane, just drop it – we have no time to change him." Zero cut in before Akira has the next brilliant idea in mind to give himself another makeover.

"…" Kaname Kuran took in the younger twin's appearance, and thought Akira most definitely took after him in dressing sense. Still, gelling up the hair and putting cologne on is a little bit to the extreme side – even he doesn't do that when he pays a visit to the Ichijo back in his childhood days. Hair gel was never his thing, and cologne only comes in when he hits his teenage days.

"Come on, let's not dawdle any longer – I don't want Akemi hounding me with calls." Zero commented, as he ushered the boys into the limo car that will take them to the train station to catch a subway down to Chiba.

Just like the Kyoto estate, Fujiwara Satoshi's residence in the prefecture of Chiba was also a typical Japanese Style house. The only difference was that unlike the Kyoto estate whereby it was surrounded by maple trees, the Chiba estate only had two maple trees in sight – one to each corner of the front gate. The front part of the house was being used as the Doujo practice area; the residential areas were situated towards the back part of the estate.

"Ah… always the punctual one, aren't you – Zero-nii?" Fujiwara Akemi greeted the silver-haired teen cheerfully with a bright smile upon her features.

"Here I thought we were running late…" Zero throws back almost immediately, only to receive a giggle back in response from the girl.

"No, not quite… Satomi's later than you today. Apparently, some stupid Level E out there thought it would be fun to terrorize the neighboring town. Satomi went out earlier to sort things out." Akemi responded.

"Level E…was that a mission from the association?" Zero asked next.

"Huh…? Oh, no… the Association is still busy picking up the pieces from the ex-chairperson's doings that they don't really have time to deal with the strays. The vampire council is obviously 'out' for the time-being, so it's up to us entirely to keep things under control for now. Apparently, some students from the Doujo were conversing about some creepy stalker lurking in the park at night waiting to prey on innocent females. Satomi overheard the gossips, and decided to play it safe by doing patrol around the area." Akemi explained, as she squatted down to the twins' level and pecked them friendlily on their cheeks.

"She went out there by her-self?" Zero asked again.

"Not really, I send Hiroshi out with her on the trip. Enough chattering, come along – my parents is expecting you people to turn up for some time now." Akemi ended the topic of her sister's whereabouts then, and hurried to bring the twins into the house first. Kaname and Zero followed suit, shortly.

"Mom, Dad… Zero-nii is here!" Akemi greeted aloud, as she entered the house with the twins in tow.

"Ah…Zero, it's been a long time – come here, take a seat. Dinner would be ready in ten." The wife of Fujiwara Satoshi, and mother to Satomi and Akemi poked her head out from the kitchen to inform Zero before going back to her task of preparing dinner, again.

"No worries, take your time – we have plenty of it at our disposal for this evening." Zero answered back, as he snuck a glance to his side. The pureblood was being extremely quiet ever since stepping into the house, with closer inspection – Zero noticed the stiff posture of the man and had to hide a smile from being seen on his lips. So the pureblood prince was 'freaking' out a little, eh?

"Kaname, relax… you're too tensed up. Uncle Satoshi is way better than my Master; he won't shoot you if that's what you are worried about." Zero whispered as he kept his eyes on the twins, whom were now busy playing on the play-station set which Akemi had obviously been playing before since it was lying carelessly on the floor with the TV screen still in gaming mode.

"Neh… Zero-nii, Akane didn't come?" Akemi questioned when she failed to notice the eldest sibling of the trio anywhere in sight, and successfully drawn Zero's attention away from the tensed pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan.

"Ah…no, Akane claimed that she wants to use the evening to catch up with her beauty sleep." Zero responded; though inwardly he was thinking that perhaps Akane just don't feel comfortable eating at the same table with his uncle. After all, Akane looks too much like his dead mother for comfort – and probably Akane just want to prevent his uncle from the grief of losing his mother.

"I see…" Akemi nodded, before going back to her unfinished game and was now playing Akira enthusiastically. Subaru, on the other hand, merely watched on from the sides.

Dinner with Fujiwara Satoshi finishes smoothly without any hiccups along the way, the twins were also on their best behavior which Zero suspected that it was probably due to their being unfamiliar with his uncle. Since it was obvious that the twins had no problems warming up to the presence of Akemi and while Zero did not ask the twins for the reason – he had a fine suspicion of it by the end of the evening.

The only possible reason for the twins to have warm up to Akemi this easily, would be that the twins knows her in their own time era and that would mean Akemi either had a mishap of being bitten by some random vampire out there while on a job or that she choose to pick a vampire for her future half. Either way, it is not his place to concern himself with – and besides, Akemi is old enough to handle herself.

After dinner, Akemi volunteered to 'baby-sit' the twins while Fujiwara Satoshi retreated to his Study with Zero and Kaname to do some idle chat session. The first half of the chat session consists of Fujiwara Satoshi grilling Zero for details over the last 4 years of his life, and the second half of the conversation was with the pureblood prince of the Kuran Clan. The topics involved were mainly relating to Zero, much to the silver-haired teen's embarrassment. Not to forget, it ended with the typical 'threat' of the possible outcome if Kaname had dared to harm Zero in any sense.

It amuses the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan to no end, while Zero was absolutely mortified by the words tumbling forth from his uncle Satoshi's lips. It bloody well makes him feel as though he's a bride, saved the fact that he's a male instead of a female. By the time they left the estate, Kaname was still smirking at Zero while the silver-haired teen merely glared at the pureblood whenever the twins were not looking in their directions.

Date started: 24/1/2013

Date completed: 24/1/2013


	50. Chapter 49

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: I sure hope last chapter is up to your standards, I try to make it as fun as I could … Now on to the next part…a little bit boring, but I would have a bombshell down towards the end of the chapter…

Answer to review by puppetprince: Why not Aidou x Sayori, you asked? Simple, Aidou is a vampire here and Sayori is a mere human. I do not wish to change her into an ex-human because I don't think she would want that either. She's level-head and logical, and besides she knows her role pretty well.

Chapter 49 – Of Dinner Invitations and Party Invitations…

When the twins returned to the Kuran's estate with a smug Kaname and annoyed Zero; they were greeted first-hand by an amused Akane. Within her hands held a note of sort – addressed specifically to one Kaname Kuran.

The note was brought back by Wakaba Sayori whom had visited the Cross Academy for a while to conduct a routine supervision check on the renovation progress, representing 'Fujiwara Corporation' – since the construction company engaged fell under the management of the same organization. Apparently, Chairman Cross had tracked the girl down only to stuff the note in her hands seeking her help in getting the note over to the pureblood prince of the night-class. Once the girl got back to the estate, the note was dump in her lap instead.

Kaname Kuran opened up the folded note and promptly passes it to Zero to read next, the short was short, crisp and direct to the point – seeking both Zero and Kaname's presence for a dinner in the coming weekend. However, in the note the Chairman had specifically mentioned that the twins are not allowed to be present for the dinner. That caused both Kaname and Zero to arch an eyebrow up in surprise.

"Zero, do you have any idea what all this is about?" Kaname asked, the last request from the Chairman seem a little odd and to specifically ban the twins from coming for the dinner was enough to set alarms off in the pureblood's mind.

"…I have a guess, but I need to confirm something with Cross first." That was all Zero was willing to reveal, and with that Zero brought the twins upstairs for their bath and prepare them for bed.

Once Zero and the twins were out of sight, Kaname turned towards Akane for her opinion on the matter but Akane had absolutely no idea this time around.

"I may have arrived from the future, but I don't know each and every little detail of your relationship – okay?" Akane rolled her eyes as she throws to her future adoptive 'father', before turning her attention back to the magazine on hand.

Akane was bored out of her mind, there is no telephone and television in the house – but she gathered this must be due to the fact that nobody had been living here since eight years ago. Okay, correction – there is a television and telephone in the house but with no reception and connection at all, hence it was equivalent to none. Apparently, everyone in the house was so busy that nobody bothered to consider the idea of reconnecting the services to the phone and television set. Knowing that Kaname had a lot on his mind recently, Akane did not bother to bring the issue up to his attention.

Therefore, the sandy-haired girl had taken on to the idea of raiding her cousin mangas collection to pass time or to nick magazines off from the models' pile of leisure materials to keep herself occupied.

Three towns away in the Cross Academy, Kaien Cross was busy placating his hunter friend – Yagari Touga. Thank god, the man has enough sense not to go charging into the Kuran's estate with the idea of slaughtering Kaname Kuran. Apparently, Yagari was contemplating on the idea when the previous memory of what the twins could do during their first encounter wormed itself into his mind. And so, the veteran hunter had ended up stalking back to the Cross residence a little after mid-night that very day, after Zero departed from the residence.

"Touga, quit pacing the floor already. I have already sent a note over to Kaname, seeking his presence for a dinner here on the coming weekend. You can then rant and raved or even threaten him with colourful languages when he arrived for dinner then." Kaien Cross told his friend, inwardly withholding the information that he had also invited Zero along for the dinner. The idea of inviting Zero along was to keep the situation under control, he highly doubted he would be able to keep a murderous Yagari Touga from slaughtering the pureblood if Zero was nowhere in sight.

Yagari Touga was mad, though no longer boiling over with fury like before but he was still displeased by the recent happenings with his once favourite disciple. His mind failed to comprehend the idea how his disciple could change from loathing the blood-suckers' existence to bonding with one of them that easily? Moreover, the blood-sucker in question happens to be a pureblood and that makes even less sense to him. Zero was supposed to hate them all, isn't it?

That was when his inner-voice kindly reminded him of the future trio's presence, and then his face darkens another shade. Now he was blaming the trio for corrupting his disciple, how else could Zero changed from detesting those leeches to liking them even? Frustration at his peak, the veteran hunter stalked out of the place again – he has every intention in mind to go out for some hunting and hoping that the mission could keep him sane in the mind.

"…" Kaien Cross stared as his old pal stalked out of his front door, and sighed inwardly in response. He could only hoped that his friend could be calm enough to go through this coming weekend's dinner without blood-shed occurring. Zero might not have openly admitted it, but that foster son of his would make his life a living hell if anything unfortunate were to befall Kaname Kuran in any sense. Not to mentioned, he would have a whole cohort of aristocrats' level after him if their 'prince' were injured or anything…

Ichiru Kiryuu stood in front of the gates leading up to the house that the Kurenai's resided with conflicted feelings warring in him. The last time he was here, Shizuka-sama was with him but now only he remained.

"Ichiru-san…?" The servant whom opened up the gate greeted him, jolting him back to reality.

With a nod, Ichiru Kiryuu stepped through the threshold and made his way into the western style building in front of him.

"How is Maria doing?" Ichiru asked, directing his question to Maria Kurenai's parents.

"She's still having a high fever, just three hours ago her temperature spike and went up another notch. The only thing she said was your name, so we decided to call you over – hopefully it will set her mind at ease." Maria Kurenai's father responded, addressing Ichiru on behalf of his emotional wreck wife.

Ichiru nodded, as he followed the servant's lead to the girl's room. The room was brightly lit by fluorescent lights; the curtain was drawn as usual. Maria Kurenai laid on her bed looking flushed from the fever she suffered, and fidgets in her sleep – probably suffering from night-mares. Ichiru sat his katana by the side of the cabinet situated next to the bed, as he took a seat gingerly by the sleeping girl's side.

His eyes soften visibly as he reached a hand out to test out the feverish girl's temperature. Martin Kurenai, the father of Maria's was right – the temperature was indeed high to a level that would sends normal humans into a panicky stage. The nightmares obviously only worsen the situation further, but it seems like Ichiru's presence did helped in some ways. At least, Maria Kurenai's trashing stance was put to a stop once Ichiru's hand was laid upon the girl's feverish forehead. Several minutes later, the girl's breathing patterns calmed and become peaceful.

"Well… at least the nightmares were eased." Ichiru commented to no one in particular, as he took on the role of changing the pads on Maria's forehead to keep the temperature down throughout the night.

Maria Kurenai regained her conscious state sometime in the middle of the night, peeking through her heavy eyelids she was met by the sight of Ichiru tending to her sickly self attentively. For the briefest moment, their eyes met and then Ichiru said something about urging her to sleep and that he would stay until she'd recovered. The rest of the night, Maria Kurenai slept peacefully like a baby – no more nightmares haunting her. Whether or not was it due to the silver-haired teen's presence by her side, nobody knew for certain.

Creeping out to the balcony of the room, Ichiru pulled his mobile phone out from his jeans pocket and give Matsushita Ayano a call. The girl was initially adamant on following him out here, but he managed to dissuade the girl from tailing him and instead send her off for another errand.

"Ayano, I know it's late – but can you cancel my following appointments for the next one week or so? I have got something else to attend to; those that cannot be postpone or cancel out – please check with my brother and see if he could attend on my behalf." Ichiru instructed, careful to keep an alerting eyes on the sleeping girl.

"Will do, I'll see what I can do about the appointments. Is that all?" Matsushita Ayano asked, stifling a yawn as she responded into her cellular phone.

"Yes, that will be all – do update me once everything has been arranged." Ichiru answered, before ending the call on his side.

After ending the call, Matsushita Ayano took a glance at her wrist watch that she had placed on the bedside cabinet every night before going to bed.

"…Fancy him to call me at mid-night, I'll just wake up early tomorrow and check his schedule. No point making re-arrangement now anyway, since most business partners are probably asleep by this time." Ayano muttered aloud, before going back to sleep.

The following morning found the two human girls frantically making calls to cancel appointments on behalf of Ichiru Kiryuu, and the elder Kiryuu twin making re-arrangement on his personal schedule to fit his younger twin's appointment into his own.

"Wow… what's happening here, it looked as though a tornado had just swept through." Ichijo Takuma interjected when he walked past the dining room heading for the kitchen for a drink of water.

"Ichiru was held up at the Kurenai, so we are busy re-scheduling his appointment for this week." Zero responded simply, without a bat of his eyelid.

"Speaking of which, who's in charge of Ichijo Enterprise now that Ichiou is no longer around?" Matsushita Ayano suddenly voiced her doubt across to the vice-president of the night-class.

"Eh… I supposed that would be me?" The green eyed blond blinked in surprise before responding hesitantly.

"In that case, kindly look over this four folders – please try to ready it by three month's time. If you have no idea what's going on, I would suggest for you to speak with your family attorney and your grandfather's company legal advisors. I know your utmost priority was to assist Kaname Kuran, but if you decided to wind up Ichijo Enterprise – kindly check if the Kuran are willing to take over the company. The four folders of documents I've just given you are ongoing business proposals between 'Sakura Co-operatives Limited' and Ichijo Enterprise. Do think it over and inform the relevant parties of the final outcome." Ayano said, as she promptly pushes the folders into the green eyed blond vampire's hands.

Ichijo Takuma froze, he might have been his grandfather's sole beneficial party but he had absolutely no idea on how to manage a business. Akane Kiryuu took one look at her cousin's dumbstruck look, and slapped her hand on her forehead.

"You didn't bother paying attention to your teacher's words when you were home-schooled, am I right to say that?" Akane questioned, in a mocking tone of voice as she addressed her cousin.

"…" Ichijo Takuma could only nodded dumbly in response, he never paid much attention to the business factors in his grandfather's work and now it's coming back to bite him in the ass. The only thing he paid attention to was his grandfather's issues relating to the council, anything else he did not bother to pay attention at all.

"…Ayano-san, I'm afraid – we need to organize a crash course on business management for Ichijo Takuma down here." Akane announced, despite knowing for a fact that a certain pureblood by the name of Kaname Kuran was directly behind her when she said that.

"Akane, what is going on down here?" Kaname Kuran takes a look at his childhood friend's pale ashen face, and questioned.

"Your friend over there have been spending too much of his time aiding you, and following your orders around that he totally forgotten about his own family business to attend for – in the case of his grandfather's death. Now I understand that you are sorting through the Kuran's family business as of current and most of the funding for the Ichijo Enterprise was actually from the Kuran's fortunes. Therefore there are two options available now, either you – Kaname Kuran took over the business of Ichijo Enterprise under legal terms; or he would need to learn his ropes in business management – getting in professionals to sort out the financial disputes between the Kuran Incorporation and Ichijo Enterprise." Akane pointed out, objectively and factually.

"While on the subject, how is the restructuring process for the council coming along? Are you going to be the one handling the major issues of the council, since no one has been appointed as the Chairman to be the over-all in charge? The Hunter's Association are more or less done in their restructuring and re-grouping process, it would not be long now that they started going up against the vampire council – again." Zero kindly reminded, shifting his attention away from his personal schedule for a minute.

"…" Kaname Kuran felt the start of his headache building up, and then he shifted the whole group of people into his Study. There, he pour himself a drink from his bottle of brandy to relax his mind before plunging himself into the discussion of his current ideas in mind.

"If I may suggest something…?" Akane interrupted the pureblood mid-speech, and gained herself several pairs of curious eyes.

"The Kuran's businesses from what I know in my time were mainly centred on import, export of crude oil, petroleum – more towards the energy related sectors in the industry. The Ichijo, on the other hand, relied on telecommunications; information technology and other technologies related industry to generate income. The Aidou were mainly dealing with the management of blood bank, and medical sectors – blood tablets were manufactured in their factory. The Akatsuki operated privately managed hospitals for the vampires' society, and the Souen works together with them.

So I gathered the best thing to do now is to sort out the businesses handled by Ichijo Enterprise, separating out the sectors properly. Then get in professional to do a calculation of the money used by Ichijo Asato to fund for his business, and also to calculate the current fixed and liquid assets of both companies. In the meantime, Ichijo Takuma needs to learn the ropes of managing a company. I believed Kaname-sama would be swamped with council related issues and managing his own family business to fully take over the Ichijo Enterprise at this point of time." Akane concluded, pinching in her own opinions to the matter at hand.

"Pray tell, whom do you suggest for the job then?" Zero questioned the sandy-haired girl, who on earth would be the most ideal person to stick their nose into the Kuran-Ichijo business?

"I would suggest getting an outsider to do the job, there's something called outsourcing – you know? These professionals they handled accounts of various companies at the same time, and they charged the company at a reasonable rate and saved the owner of the business the trouble to employ a whole team of internal accountants to do the job." Akane inputted.

"Surely, you don't mean…" Ayano started warily, but was met by Akane's smirk in response.

"My cousin would kill me, you know? She set up the company with her friends with the intention to break away from the clan and now you want me to rope her into this?" Ayano mumbled under her breath, as she reached for her cellular phone placed by the side of the coffee table she was using as a work desk temporarily.

"Technically, she's not helping the clan business. The Kuran and the Ichijo are stand-alone, with no relations to the Fujiwara in any way. Besides, the Fujiwara have their own team of accountants at their disposal so they probably would not be using your cousin's company for service anyway. The Ichijo and the Kuran, on the other hand, needs to conduct major restructuring in the company. Who knows what the hell had Ichijo Asato being doing by managing the Kuran incorporation all these years.

It's better to get an outsider to sort things out, and with Ichijo Asato's tendency to dabble in shady areas - I think your cousin is a better choice then some poor innocents' humans out there. At least, she knows what she's dealing with – how does a five years permanent contract of using her company's service sounds?" Akane suggested, without bothering to ask for permission from her cousin.

"Fine…I'll ask her out for a chat, and then we see how it goes from there." Ayano relented eventually, inwardly hoping that she would not be subjected to her cousin's rant when she called the said person up in a little while time.

The next few days that follow are quite hectic for the green eyed blond vampire, poor Ichijo Takuma was forced to go through the boring and mundane classes of business management with no one but one Zero Kiryuu for company.

"Why isn't your twin going through the crash course too?" Ichijo Takuma questioned, while on his way out from the business college building situated within the compound of Fujiwara Gakuen, on Friday's afternoon. Never in his life would he thought that he would be asked to attend morning classes, and while it was something new to him – the lessons are making him utterly bored.

"Ichiru already completed the course or at least part of the course, before his departure with Shizuka Hiou. He was deemed unsuitable by Master Touga to be learning the ropes of hunting, so my mother gets in a home tutor to teach him a thing or two relating to business related course such that he would have something to do at home while I'm out hunting with my master." Zero responded his tone flat making it hard to discern his current feelings to the topic at hand.

"Oh…"

"Yes, oh… now hurry up and get back to the Kuran's estate already. Ayano's cousin would be dropping by today for the discussion, no? I believe Kaname would appreciate you being there when the guest drop by." Zero interjected, leading his way to the limo sends over by the pureblood to pick them up for home.

When Zero arrived back at the estate with Ichijo Takuma in tow, he was caught off-guard by the number of apprehension stares directed his way. Feeling unnerved, he questioned.

"What's with all that staring about?"

"…" Nobody said anything, until Akane took it upon her-self to hand over an invitation card to Zero before scramming for cover behind a highly amused Kaname Kuran.

Zero took one look in the pureblood direction, before shifting his eyes over to Yuuki – the girl was fidgeting uneasily. Akatsuki Kain was standing stiffly by the side, and Aidou Hanabusa seem as though he wanted to say something but was forbidden to do so by someone – most likely Yuuki or Kaname, Zero surmised.

Taking a deep breath to brace him-self for what was to come, the silver-haired teen flipped open the card and read its content.

_To: Kaname Kuran & Family,_

_You and your family are cordially invited to the engagement party of my daughter – Maria Kurenai, and her fiancé – Ichiru Kiryuu on the 20__th__ of April, 7.p.m. at our humble abode. Do call the following number: 000-1121-8899 to RSVP for the event._

_Thank you and we look forward to seeing you and your family at the event._

_Regards,_

_Martin Kurenai._

Zero Kiryuu stared at the card, disbelief apparent on his features – his twin disappeared for nearly a week and dropped this bombshell piece of information on him without any warning in advance? Sure, he knew his twin and Maria Kurenai shared a good relationship between them but still… engagement?! What the hell was going on now?!

The curious Ichijo Takuma peeked at the card content over Zero's shoulder, but once he registered what was written in the card – he started to inch away from the silver-haired teen lest he ended up caught in one of the teen's explosive tantrum.

"Erm… Zero, are you okay…?" Yuuki started to speak up apprehensively when she noticed her friend's odd silence and calming demeanour.

"I am fine, Yuuki – please kindly call and inform them of the number of people attending the party. Exclude the twins from it, but I would be going. I would very much like to find out just how exactly did Ichiru ended up engaging himself without the slightest hint of warning to me – his very own twin." Zero spoke calmly, but inwardly he was seething.

Even the invitation card was addressed to Kaname, and his twin did not bother to get them to send a separate invitation for him. Obviously, Ichiru had deemed it enough to put the term '& family' behind Kaname's name and that it would automatically extended out to him.

'_Ichiru… just you wait, I would be sure t__o invite the Chairman along for the party. He is in a way, considered family too – right? I would have invited Uncle Satoshi along but I didn't think he would want to go…'_ Zero thought inwardly to himself, making a mental note to broach the subject to Kaien Cross during the dinner the following night at the ex-hunter's residence.

Date started: 24/1/2013

Date completed: 25/1/2013


	51. Chapter 50

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: Shocking – no? Well, Ichiru's pairing was revealed… I gathered it's easier to put him with Maria Kurenai XD I'll be sure to put a lot of KanZe into this chapter XDDD

Chapter 50 – Affairs of heart…

Dinner at the Cross Residence turns out to be a confrontation event between the veteran hunter Yagari Touga and Kaname Kuran, the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan. Thank goodness for Kaien's insight to involve Zero into the situation, else hell might break loose within the academy grounds. Upon the first sight of Kaname Kuran, Yagari Touga had snapped and trained his gun upon the pureblood vamp – pulling the trigger without giving it a second thought.

The first thing Zero Kiryuu did then was to unleash his rose whips and in process blocking the pureblood prince from the bullet of his Master's gun rifle before roping the said weapon away from his Master's grasp.

"Master Touga, need I remind you that I am bound to him in all essence? If he dies by your hands today, I either go insane from the sheer idea of losing him or I could merely follow him to hell." Zero interjected, flatly as he stood his ground in front of Kaname – shielding the pureblood away from his incensed Master in hunting skills.

"Kid, are you trying to threaten me for him… for this LEECH?!" Yagari Touga demanded as he throw a look of absolute detest towards Kaname's direction.

Kaname, meanwhile, remained unfazed from the glare directed towards him by the veteran hunter. This was nothing new to him, since he had knew from day 1 that Yagari Touga detested vampires with a passion and his current relationship with Zero would no doubt drive the hunter over the edge. Judging from the man's dark mood, it would be best if he did not let his annoyance towards the hunter shown lest it upsets his lover further.

"…No, I am not threatening you – I don't think you will feel threaten by me either. I am merely stating a fact." Zero replied plainly, but his eyes remained fixed on the veteran hunter – he called his master.

"Now, calm down – Touga… I organized this dinner for the sake of you. It's the chance for you to talk things over in a peaceful manner with Kaname-kun, not for you to kill him at your first sight." Kaien Cross intervened then, bringing a stop to the eyes staring contest between his old pal, and his foster son.

Dinner was carried out in tensed silence, the master and disciple were mainly locked in eye contact whereas the pureblood vampire and the ex-hunter, current Chairman of the Academy chatted on to catch up on recent happenings instead. Desserts were entirely forgone, as the veteran hunter and Zero Kiryuu left for the Study of Kaien Cross for some 'private' chat.

Outside in the living room, Kaien Cross took his time observing the pureblood in front of him. Kaname Kuran sat regally on the sofa couch, his facial expression carefully masked up behind his poker face of indifference. He was trying his best to appear unconcerned of the happenings taking place now behind the Chairman's Study door.

'Calm down… Zero would be fine, that's his master inside the Study with him. Nothing would befall him…' Kaname Kuran was willing himself so, but then his inner voice reminded him of Yagari Touga's previous act of shooting Zero when the former caught the silver-haired teen attempting to bite Akane for blood.

'If that was the outcome of a mere feed session, it could be worst today.' Kaname almost paled when the earlier happenings replayed itself in his mind. Zero had stood up for him, going up against the veteran hunter. Zero had taken his side, over that Yagari Touga whom his lover had looked upon as a 'teacher' figure.

"Kaname-kun, you cared a great deal for Zero." Kaien Cross said then, jarring the pureblood from his worrying thoughts.

"I supposed that would be the case." Kaname answered, carefully unsure of the Chairman's motive behind the sudden comment about his feelings for the silver-haired guardian.

"I gathered that much – I can see that you have come to love him now. Of course, I could also sense that the feelings are mutual between you two." Kaien Cross responded next, successfully rendering Kaname Kuran's mask of indifference to slip for a minute.

Kaname snapped his eyes to the Chairman in shock, before he hurried to school his mask back up to indifference again.

"Is there a reason for you to be so surprised? I've heard from Zero a few days ago, when he dropped by for a late night visit. He told me that the two of you have bonded with one another. I wouldn't say I know you well, but at least I knew enough to know that you would not mark him if you don't feel anything for him. The same to go for Zero, he would never allow you to mark him if he didn't wants it – subconsciously." Kaien Cross surmised, eyeing the pureblood with amusement much to Kaname's annoyance.

Regardless of what was happening outside in the living room between Kaname Kuran and the ex-hunter, current Chairman of the Cross Academy. Inside the Study room of Kaien Cross, the atmosphere was entirely different – the tension was thick enough to be cut with a knife.

"You are siding with him now, aren't you?" Yagari Touga gritted out at his once favorite disciple, from frustration and irritation.

"So what if I am indeed siding with him? What are you going to do then?" Zero throws back at his Master, evenly.

"Did all the learning over the past years go down the drain? How could you place your trust in those blood-suckers? For all you know, he could be involving himself with you for some ulterior motive!" The veteran hunter snarled out in response to his disciple's firm decision to stand by the Kuran heir.

"Ulterior motive… like what exactly? If you are talking about him using me merely for sex pleasures, then why the hell would he want to bond with me then? Vampires bonded for life, there's no such thing as divorce – you know?"

Zero pointed out objectively to his mentor in hunting skills. He knew the former was worrying for his well-being, and he really do appreciated it. Still, affairs concerning the heart are always unexpected and they usually don't go according to plan. If one were to ask him six months ago, what did he think of Kaname Kuran – his answer would definitely be immense dislike or even hatred. Now though, his answer would be a complete opposite to what he had thought before.

Zero respected his mentor a lot, and the last thing he wanted to do was to disappoint the former. However, like what people always say – one cannot control feelings of the heart that easily. His mind was telling him the logical thing to do but his heart, body and soul desires the exact opposite. He had once vowed never to let any vampires come too close for comfort, and look at what he had been doing these days?!

"Master, I know you're upset with me now… but all I want to say is that, I'm of age already. I had a very clear idea of what I was getting myself into by allowing the bond to occur." Zero said, his words coming out sounding like a plea for understanding from the other party.

Yagari Touga sighed; he knew nothing that he said could have dissuaded his disciple anymore. Moreover, what happened had happened – nothing could be done to reverse the act. The bond has been set into place, and whether he likes it or not – his disciple and that Kuran heir was now bounded for life and eternity.

"Master, I would understand if you do not wish to see me again in future. Nevertheless, it remained a fact that I still see you as my mentor." Zero eventually said after a couple minutes of silence between them, before he turned on his heels to exit the room.

"Zero…" Kaname started when he saw his silver-haired lover exiting the Study of Kaien Cross, his eyes roaming as he took in Zero's appearance. Inwardly, he heaved a sigh of relief when he noticed no injuries from the silver-haired hunter.

"Let's go." Zero told the pureblood evenly, and then he turned to acknowledge his foster father – Kaien Cross with a nod. Kaname Kuran followed Zero's example of acknowledging the Chairman, before hurrying to catch up with the departing figure of his lover.

Halfway across the lawn, the pureblood asked. "I thought you were going to invite the Chairman for your twin's engagement party?"

"I changed my mind, telling him now would only irk my master further. I do not want my master to take his frustration out on Ichiru." Zero responded coolly after reaching to the place where Kaname's driver had waited patiently for their emerging from the Academy grounds.

"You really care a lot for your brother…and what happened to your previous anger for not being informed of his impending engagement before the cards were sends out to the guests?" Kaname questioned.

"I guess; I just couldn't stay mad at Ichiru for long… just like how you always let Yuuki off the hook whenever she messed something up by attempting something ridiculously stupid?" Zero throws back easily.

Meanwhile, within the Kurenai's residence situated within the prefecture area of Toyama among the mountain regions. Ichiru Kiryuu was engrossed in the task of understanding the sales records for the cluster of businesses registered under the brand name of 'Sakura' – when the daughter of the said Clan entered the guest room where he had been allocated for usage over the past week.

"Ichiru…?" Maria Kurenai called out from the door-way, drawing the silver-haired teen away from his task at hand.

"Maria…" Ichiru started, as he put away the stack of documents originally sitting on his lap as he flipped through them idly.

For a while, silence hung between them as they stood staring right into each other's eyes. Maria Kurenai was puzzled; she was groggy and sick with high fever over the past few days. Therefore she had no absolute idea as to how the situation had come down to this point. Imagine her bewilderment when her parents' suddenly announced to her yesterday's evening, that she would be engaged to Ichiru and that the engagement party would be taking place in three week's time.

Being born into a family of aristocrat class, Maria Kurenai had long understood the fact that her future marriage was not in her hands but of her parents' arrangement and decision. However, nothing could have prepared her for the idea of being engaged to Ichiru Kiryuu. Sure, she was attracted to the said teen with a passion but the idea of being engaged to the former had never once crossed her mind. Since Ichiru was a mere mortal up till recently…

Ichiru Kiryuu was no genius, but he was smart enough to piece the puzzles together within a short period of time. Despite the fact that his little fiancée had yet to say anything to him, he could guess what was going on in his fiancée's mind easily. Maria Kurenai was quite an easy feat to read, her confusion was visible in her eyes and the hesitancy on the girl's face speaks volumes.

With a sigh, he reached for the female aristocrat and pulled her to him – settling the girl down in the empty chair that he was previously occupying. Reaching a hand out to smooth the girl's hair gently, Ichiru took a moment to gather his wits together before addressing his fiancée.

The sheer notion of getting himself engaged when he dropped by to pay Maria Kurenai a visit was the last thing on his mind about a week ago, but over the past week – the girl's condition had been critical to say. Slipping in and out of consciousness from her fever induced sleep, and calling out his name in the midst of it all. In response to which, he had spend hours guarding the girl in her feverish state of mind; tending to the girl's needs personally.

On his third day of his arrival, he had approached Martin Kurenai with the topic of the Hiou's business for discussion. The man had been kind enough to brief him on the details of operation, things that cannot be seen from the reports. For that alone, he was grateful – but then somewhere along the line, the topic of discussion had strayed and Martin Kurenai had brought on his worries of Maria's health condition to say.

Martin Kurenai could not fathom the reason why his daughter's health condition had fluctuated so suddenly, and Ichiru nearly let it slipped of the fact that during the past four years the health condition of Maria was actually kept stable by the late Shizuka Hiou's blood. Nevertheless, he knew that was not a topic to be brought out into the light for a casual discussion so he kept his silence.

Either way, Martin Kurenai was telling him that with Maria's condition being in the current state it would be difficult for the girl to take control of the company if anything were to happen to him and his wife. That was when the topic of his engagement with Maria was first brought up for discussion; the man's reasoning was simple to understand enough. To put it simply, Ichiru was already getting himself familiarize with the company's operation and Maria appeared to be quite taken by him – so why not make the best situation out of it by getting them together as a couple?

"…And you agree, just like that?" Maria Kurenai gaped, of all the possible reasons behind her engagement to Ichiru – this was the last thing on her mind, obviously.

"Well…there are no valid reasons for me to reject the offer either…so…why not?" Ichiru told the girl with a smile, before urging the girl back to her room for some rest.

Maria Kurenai was in a daze-like mood when she returned to her room, she would be jumping up in joy if it was not for the fact that this particular engagement had come to her so suddenly without any warning in advance. She was after all betrothed to her dream guy and not just some random dude from their society. That alone, was enough to cause Maria to grin like an idiot once the reality of the situation sets in on her.

Ichiru watched until Maria's figure disappeared completely from sight, and that was when he recalled that he had yet to inform his twin on his impending engagement party. Groaning inwardly as he prepared himself mentally for the possible reaction from Zero, the younger Kiryuu twin pull his cellular phone out and dialed his twin's mobile number.

"Yes, Ichiru…?" Zero's voice sounded from the other end of the line, annoyance lacing the tone of his voice. Ichiru could just imagine his twin's look of annoyance as the former answered the call, easily.

"I just thought to inform you that I'm getting engaged." Ichiru said through the receiver, keeping his tone calm despite the fact that he was kind of unnerved on the inside. In fact, he was so nervous that he had taken to count the number of polka dots on the bed-sheets to calm his nerves as he spoke to his twin.

"Yes, I know – your future in laws had it in mind to send the Kuran's an invitation card for the event." Zero's voice was laced with unbidden sarcasm.

Ichiru winced, he had no idea that Martin Kurenai's actions was so efficient that the cards were already issued out to the invited personnel. If he knew the man would be so efficient, he would not have waited and would have called his twin up the moment he nodded his consent to the 'proposal'.

Wakaba Sayori was out in the patio with a novel in hand trying to read while keeping an eye out on the twins when she detected a familiar presence behind her. With an inward sigh, she put away her novel and said.

"Aidou-sempai, why don't you take a seat? I believe it's high time that we have a talk with one another."

The blue eyed blond aristocrat hesitated for a second before complying with Sayori's request, pulling out the chair next to the girl and settled him-self into it.

"Aidou-sempai, I supposed there's really no other way to broach this subject other than coming outright and say it to your face." Sayori started, averting her eyes elsewhere so that she would not stammer while speaking.

"Care to enlighten me what the hell are you on about?" Aidou Hanabusa responded calmly, rather as calm as he could manage – all the while ignoring the nagging feelings in his stomach. He had inkling that whatever topic that was coming up for discussion, he would not be enjoying the talk.

"I've spoke to Akatsuki-san sometime ago, rather he had approached me then. We spoke for a while, and the topic of discussion just happens to be you. He was telling me that you had an unhealthy obsession with ME and was hoping that I could perhaps talk some sense into you." Wakaba Sayori started, still not looking at the blond.

"I see…" The response from Aidou Hanabusa was tight and mixed with a hint of displeasure in it, but since Sayori was not keeping her eyes upon the blond – she had no idea how the vampire in question had taken her words.

Silence hung between the duos, the twins were still playing some distances away with Risa and Ichijo supervising them. Seiren was out with Zero and Kaname to the Academy, the rest of the aristocrats and Yuuki Kuran were gathered in the living room – eyeing the duos from the inside of the house.

Yuuki Kuran was puzzled, she had no idea what her friend had been saying to the blue-eyed blond to gain such a displeasing reaction from the blond. For a while, she had wanted to head out and play peace-maker until she felt Ruka Souen pulling her back with a warning glare.

"Yuuki-sama, please do not involved yourself into it." Akatsuki Kain started, his tone firm but the expression on him seem a little too weary for the pureblood princess' liking.

"Yes, Yuuki-san… please refrained from bothering yourself with whatever was going on out there." Matsushita Ayano spoke up then, her tone stern.

"But…but…" Yuuki hesitated, her eyes trained upon her friend and the blue eyed blond vampire speaking out in the patio.

"Yuuki-san…Please! You have no need to meddle in it; Aidou Hanabusa would not harm Sayori – if that's your worry. They just had to get some things cleared up between them…" Ayano raised her voice at Yuuki then.

"W…what do you mean?" Yuuki was frowning now.

"I am sure you have eyes to see for yourself… Aidou Hanabusa was getting too attracted to Sayori, and that is not a good sign." Ayano throws back at Yuuki.

"Why is that so?" Yuuki frowned, still not getting the whole picture yet.

"…Yuuki, what Ayano meant to say down here was that Aidou Hanabusa was obsessed with Sayori – he likes Sayori a lot that it was becoming unhealthy for everyone involved. I am certain you know the reason why your friend and Aidou would never work out between them now, don't you?" Akane prompted, having had enough of Yuuki's retarded reaction to simply throw out facts to the girl.

"You mean to say that Sayori was now breaking things off with Aidou-sempai?" Yuuki questioned.

"There's nothing to break, because there has been nothing going on between them. Aidou Hanabusa was in denial all these while because he knew nothing would work out between them, there has been no confession of the heart all these time. In case you'd failed to noticed, all these while it was just Aidou Hanabusa's own decision to care and protect Sayori.

Sayori's reaction to it all was indifference, she simply leave things be – she knew whatever that was going on between them was merely hopeless pining. It would be better to do without; and now she was trying to spell things out for Aidou. Therefore Yuuki, please do not poke your nose into it because it would only complicate matters for them." Akane explained.

"Aidou-sempai, I'm sure you are no fool – whatever you feel for me, it cannot continue on. We are of different world, I am certain you knew this." Upon this statement, Sayori finally looked at the blond in the eyes.

Wakaba Sayori tried her best to remain unfazed by the look in those blue orbs of Aidou Hanabusa, she could easily see that the blond was struggling to keep his emotions in check. She felt bad for breaking those hopes of the blond, but she knew it would have to be done.

All these while she had pretended to be indifferent to what Aidou Hanabusa had done to care and protect her for – and with each passing day it became harder and harder for her to feign indifference. She was only human, and humans have feelings unlike wooden block.

To say that she was not touched by the blond actions would be a lie, but she cannot allow herself to surrender to those growing feelings in her. Neither of them can afford to act on their desires, they were simply not meant to be. They both have their roles to play, and besides not every vampires family can stomach the idea of having their sole heir to take on a human for a bride. Let alone, this is the Aidou clan that they are talking about – and up till the current point of time, no vampires clan in the Asian region had allowed an union between human and vampire to take place before saved from the exception of the Fujiwara Clan.

After saying her piece, Wakaba Sayori rise from her seat and took her novel with her as she made her way back into the house. She left the blond alone to his thoughts, and went upstairs to her room immediately.

"I've done all I could, whether or not he decided to drop those feelings he had for me – now depended on his own decision. Like you'd mentioned before, he can be too bull-headed for his own good." Wakaba Sayori managed to keep her voice even as she whispered to the cousin of Aidou Hanabusa before leaving the living room area altogether.

"Akira, try to hold your tongue over the next few days around uncle Aidou." Subaru suddenly spoke up in the midst of a card game with his younger twin, Risa Miyazaki and Ichijo Takuma.

"…I know, I'm not that stupid – okay?" Akira Kuran throws back at his elder twin.

"What are you two on about?" Ichijo Takuma questioned, sounding bewildered while Risa wisely kept her silence on the matter.

"Aunt Yori and Uncle Aidou – they just have a talk, and judging from the tension over there … I'll say Aunt Yori spelt things out to Uncle Aidou – and now our dear uncle's temper is not at his best condition." Subaru responded.

"Huh…?" Ichijo Takuma blinked, obviously still not catching the balls yet.

"Let's just say the Uncle Aidou from our time was in love with Aunt Yori, despite knowing the fact that neither of them could have a future with one another. What happened just now was Aunt Yori trying to talk some sense into him, but whether or not will he be able to snap out of it – depends on his own will now." Akira summarized the situation to his best ability and feed it to his beloved Uncle Ichijo.

"Ah…I see, I didn't see that coming at all." Ichijo Takuma mused, finally having caught on to the twins' words.

"Of course, you didn't catch on – I believed the only one whom did was Akatsuki Kain. You spend most of your time with Kaname-sama, Akane or Shiki Senri. Otherwise, you are busy reading your collection of manga – so of course you failed to notice the other people's life-story." Risa Miyazaki interjected.

"And you did?" Ichijo Takuma retaliated with an arch of the eyebrow.

"Of course I did notice… imagine the number of times I had to sneak past Aidou's detection to get to Sayori for information prior to the whole Rido's fiasco." Risa Miyazaki muttered aloud in annoyance.

"Akira, Subaru – why are the two of you out here?" The sudden sound of Zero Kiryuu's voice jarred the group of four out from their conversation, and shifted their eyes over to the gate's direction.

"Daddy…!" Akira's eyes immediately brighten up, as he made his way over to greet the newly returned Kaname Kuran and Zero Kiryuu.

"Kaname-sama, Zero-sama…" Risa greeted with utmost respect.

"Risa, thank you for keeping an eye out on them…" Zero responded, before flicking his eyes over to the beaming green eyed blond and then he smirked.

"I thought you would be fretting over the company's issues and would have no time for the twins'?" Zero directed his words to the green eyed blond vampire, and said.

"…I got some help in that area, so I'm about done – right now." Ichijo Takuma responded, without batting an eyelid while Risa Miyazaki throws the blond a warning look. Meanwhile, the twins promptly broke into giggling fits.

"What is so funny, care to share it with us?" Zero looked at the twins for an answer – to which, Akira immediately launched into the tale of how pathetic their Uncle Ichijo had been some hours ago when they passes by the library and how their Aunt Risa had muttered something about idiots before stepping in and volunteer to help Ichijo Takuma in high-lighting the key points to look out for in the reports.

"…" Both Risa and Ichijo Takuma throw a look in the twins' direction, before dropping the matter entirely. No point pursuing matter further, they should have known the twins enough to know that they would no doubt spill everything forth to Zero and Kaname upon the duos return from the Chairman's place.

With the twins back to hogging their young parents' attention, Risa Miyazaki and Ichijo Takuma shared a look among them-selves before heading back to the library to continue sorting through the pile of work left undone previously when the twins burst into the library with the request to play out front in the garden lawn.

Later that night after coaxing the twins off to bed, Kaname and Zero were back in their room for some private moments between them-selves when Kaname suddenly brought up the issue of his childhood friend and Risa Miyazaki up for discussion.

"Zero, why is it that the twins are so adamant about getting Takuma to work together with Risa?" Kaname found himself voicing his doubt aloud to his silver-haired lover.

"You mean there's something you don't know about?" Zero mused, arching an eyebrow up in question as he took in his lover's look of contemplation. Kaname was currently sitting up in bed waiting patiently for him to ready himself for bed.

"You seemed quite amused by my words, was there something that I had no idea about?" Kaname arched an eyebrow up in question.

"If you weren't too busy with your work and 'molesting' me at every possible occasions, you would be able to notice how the twins had been plotting with Akane days ago – it happens that the trio had this wonderful idea in mind to conduct an 'operation match-making act'. The first couple they had in mind was their dear Uncle Takuma and Risa, it would seem." Zero responded, a bemused expression visible on his features.

"…You are okay with them poking their nose into this?" Kaname regarded his lover curiously.

"Well, I'm not objecting to it – if that's what you mean. The Miyazaki's obviously up to no good, and while the Fujiwara could shield Risa from it for the time-being. It cannot always be in the case, because once Fujiwara Hayate – Risa's maternal grandfather passes on. There might be a change in the circumstances again, so if the twins' match-making attempt turns out well and Ichijo was willing to take Risa under his wing – it would be best. It is a fact that the Ichijo's influence in the night-society remained, despite the death of Ichijo Asato. In which case, Risa's paternal side of the family would most definitely be thinking twice before attempting any acts of stupidity." Zero responded, matter-of-factly.

"I see, so that's the reason why you supported the twins actions' and even aid the process along by making them work together…" Kaname commented, as realization dawns in on him.

Zero shudders as he felt his lover sucking on one of his more sensitive spot, seems like Kaname cannot survive one minute with him in private without making an attempt to get intimate with him. Several moments later, his clothes were off his body and the lights were off in the room – followed by them both ending up on the bed deeply engrossed in the task of love making.

Date started: 26/1/2013

Date completed: 28/1/2013


	52. Chapter 51

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: So the twins' are playing match-makers for their Aunt Risa and Uncle Takuma… Kaname cannot keep his hands off his beautiful Zero XD Ichiru and Maria is getting engaged… what else is there…and warning in advance, the trio going back to future soon. Then it's time for sequel

Chapter 51 – Ichiru & Maria engagement and the preparation for the new school term…

The engagement party for Ichiru and Maria Kurenai was a small and cozy event, as compared to the party that Kaname had organized for the sake of introducing Yuuki into the night-society. The only pureblood family which the Kurenai had it in them to invite for the event was the Kuran's, and that was by Maria's insistence.

The rest of the guests were mainly business partners of the Kurenai and the Hiou, seeing as how the Kurenai was related to the Hiou – Shizuru was also present for the party. In fact, she was also representing the Fujiwara at the same time. Of course, by inviting the Kuran – it basically also means inviting the majority of the night-class members. Since neither of them were going to let the pureblood wander off without any escort, and since the invitation card specify the '& family' – Zero was automatically considered as part of it.

Zero arrived at the venue together with the night-class members, the twins have been left behind in the Kuran's estate with Akane and Sayori to look after them. Matsushita Ayano, on the other hand, arrived at the site together with Zero and the night-class members. Being the only human among the vampires, she definitely managed to gain more attention to herself than she desired.

"A-ra, Ayano-san… you are finally here. Ichiru was just asking about when you would be popping by, earlier on." The sound of Maria Kurenai rang out clearly, drawing every guest's attention towards her as she made a move to approach Ayano.

"Good evening, Maria-sama. I hoped I wasn't intruding?" Matsushita Ayano greeted the fifteen year old vampire female, politely.

"No… no, you are most definitely not intruding on us. In fact, I am quite glad that you can make it in time. The thing is, half the crowd here was waiting in line to speak to Ichiru about future collaboration works – and sad to say, I don't get the slightest hint of what exactly was being said and exchanged between both parties." Maria Kurenai responded, as she started to lead Ayano towards the place where Ichiru Kiryuu was stationed. After which, she came back to where Yuuki stood and chatted with the pureblood princess instead.

The engagement party lasted for a total of three hours, and 80% of the time were spend mingling and interacting with the guests present for the event. Kaname did some socializing on his part with Martin Kurenai and his wife, the former Masumi Hiou. However, it was the Kiryuu twins that ended up doing most of the socializing task that evening.

For the party, Yuuki stayed with Maria for most of the evening while Kaname Kuran goes around with Zero by his side mingling and interacting with guests and potential business partners. Ichiru, on the other hand, was mostly by the side of Martin Kurenai and meeting business partners discussing future possible collaboration work with Ayano in tow.

"I'm afraid you would need to consult my brother on this, I had no inkling as to the happenings in the cultural sector of the business." Zero told one of the guests who tried to strike up a conversation with him, politely while resisting his urge to put on his scowling look.

On the other side of the event hall, Ichijo Takuma – who was standing by the side engaging small conversation with his pals was suddenly approached by a middle-aged man. The man introduced himself as Shinomiya and claimed to say that he had a business idea to share with Ichijo Takuma, wishing to get some opinions from the said heir of Ichijo Enterprise.

"Shinomiya-san, I believed it would be best for you to share that idea of yours when you dropped by the company for a chat. Today's the engagement party of Maria Kurenai and Ichiru Kiryuu; I hardly think it's an occasion to bring up discussion of business ideas in detail." Risa Miyazaki cut in pointedly, as she handed a newly printed business card of the green eyed blond over to the man swiftly.

"Phew! Thank you." Ichijo Takuma whispered in relief, he was nearly stumped just now when the man bring up the business idea with the intention to chat about it, right there and then. He was still quite new with the business concepts and all, he hardly think he would be able to make any sense out of the business idea that man was talking about – and would no doubt make a fool of himself if Risa did not intervened in time.

"You're welcome…" Risa said in response, as she handed over a champagne flute filled with champagne to the blond to soothe his nerves.

Luckily, following the departure of that man – no one else in the party had the idea in mind to approach Ichijo Takuma for any form of business talk. Most of them had flocked over to the side of the Kurenai when the father of Maria Kurenai started to bring up the topic of how Ichiru was going to assist them in the managing of the family business in the Kurenai Clan now that the younger Kiryuu was engaged to Maria Kurenai.

On the way back to the Kuran's estate, Zero had a glum look on his features throughout the journey. He had never enjoy doing socializing work, but for tonight he had forced himself to reign in his temper as the number of guests tried to engage him in small talks and friendly conversation. All of these were done in consideration of his twin's plight.

"You know I was wondering about something." Ichijo Takuma suddenly spoke up, drawing both Kaname and Zero's attention to him.

"About what exactly?" Aidou Hanabusa prompted.

"How nobody had think it weird for Zero and Kaname to be sticking together throughout the party…" Ichijo Takuma responded, nonchalantly.

"…" Now that Ichijo had brought up the issue, the other three aristocrats' shifted their curious gaze upon their leader and the silver-haired guardian instantly.

"This is the engagement party of my brother, I'm bound to be here – no? As for me attending the event with the night-class in tow, I'm a guardian for Cross Academy – when the hell did you people attend a party without me in tow over the past few years?" Zero arched an eyebrow up in question, as he regarded the four aristocrats in front of him.

For tonight's event, only Ichijo Takuma; Aidou Hanabusa; Akatsuki Kain and Ruka Souen had come along with them. Shiki Senri and Touya Rima had a job in town, and were unable to make it. Seiren was sends out by Kaname to keep an eye on the council team, the restructuring process of the vampire council was finally starting and wanting to prevent any more hiccups during the grouping of the members' – the pureblood had send his most trusted subordinate out to act as a proxy. Therefore, Risa Miyazaki was taking up Seiren's role as Kaname's bodyguard for the day.

"Takuma, stop poking around for gossips and simply mind your own business – will you?" Kaname started, although he had been parading around the area with Zero nearly attached to his hips – hoping that someone would have it in mind to question them of their constant togetherness. Unfortunately, neither of them had it in them to ask or even hint about it. Most of the guests are more interested in inquiring him of the future prospects of Kuran Incorporation and not to forget dropping subtle hints on seeking a potential union with the Kuran Clan princess.

With that, the journey back to the Kuran's estate was back down in silence – no one dared to challenge the pureblood's orders after all.

Back in the Kurenai's estate, the moment the last guest departed and vanishes from sight – Ichiru Kiryuu's face took on the expression of lethargy. The last three hours was a torturing session for him to endure, because of his twin's presence – he had remained smiling throughout the whole party as he was introduced to those business partners of the Hiou and the Kurenai. He supposed he had Zero to thank for his plight; his twin had nearly sends every guest that is seeking information pertaining to future collaboration opportunity his way – instead of helping him fending off them.

"Tired…?" The sound of Maria Kurenai addressing him jarred him out from his thoughts as he shifted his eyes towards his little fiancée.

"I'm fine, how are you feeling?" Ichiru asked back in return, unlike him – Maria was just recovering from a serious case of influenza several days ago.

"I'm okay… all I've been doing was to chit-chat with the ladies tonight, you have it worst. Dad was adamant on having you meeting all his business partners, and company's workers for tonight." Maria responded softly as she averted her eyes from the silver-haired teen.

"Nevertheless, fending off the ladies' gossiping questions was not an easy task to perform from what I've known." Ichiru commented in a deadpanned manner, he was more than willing to bet that the ladies were grilling his fiancée for details of their 'romance' – not that there has been any.

"I simply told them I met you through a family friend, and have been smitten by you ever since then." Maria responded honestly, and so far only Yuuki knows the extent of how much truth was held in that sentence.

"Indeed…come on, let's get you settled down for the night first – I still have to see your father in the family's Study." Ichiru responded, giving Maria a small smile of encouragement.

The Kiryuu-Kurenai engagement was never a romance event; it was merely an arrangement of convenience. Martin Kurenai was looking for someone whom would be able to take over his business when the time comes for him to retire, and Maria obviously knows nothing about such matters and partly also because of her weak body constitutions. There is also a fact that the Kurenai valued their daughter's opinion above anything else – and they truly wanted Maria to be happy in life. Therefore, Ichiru was chosen among other potential suitors for the daughter of the Kurenai Clan.

Ichiru, himself had agreed to the idea because he wanted to do away with the hassle of finding him-self a bride when the time comes for it. Political union is common, especially in the upper class society – be it the humans or vampires world. With his 'hardly care less' attitude, there would be a day whereby he would be subjected to an arranged marriage in time to come. Since it was bound to happen eventually, he would definitely want to get someone who is not after the fortune behind his heritage or simply just wanted him for his looks. Therefore, when Martin Kurenai broached the topic of engaging Maria to him – he had agreed after taking a moment to think things over.

With Maria, things are easier to cope with – the girl was familiar enough with him and vice versa. The two of them had first known each other through Shizuka Hiou; and the four years that Shizuka had spend in hiding was actually within the Kurenai's estate. While the Kurenai couple had no idea that the 'mad blooming princess' was actually using their daughter's body as a host of sort – they had an idea about Shizuka Hiou dropping by while they were out to pay a visit to their daughter. Since that was practically when Ichiru had started to come and go easily on their estate grounds, they merely thought he was there acting as a messenger from the mad blooming princess then.

With the engagement party of the Kiryuu-Kurenai over – the month of May comes along soon enough. The majority of the students of Cross Academy had by then received the official notification for them to return to school by the 12th of May to prepare for the new school term.

The notification was handed over to the night-class members by Chairman Cross, himself as there are obviously new adjustments to be done to the night-class students' attendance list.

There are a total of three new transfer students into the night-class when the new term begins, among them included Yuuki who will be transferring from the day-class to the night-class, and two other students from Fujiwara Gakuen. Both of them of aristocrat status, and were both subordinates to the pureblood clan of Fujiwara.

Sakaki Miyako and Tachibana Kenjiro; both of them are sixteen years old in terms of vampire's age and were loyal to the Fujiwara since the very beginning. They were sends to the Cross Academy to guide Zero and to familiarize the silver-haired teen with the family businesses. At least, that was the reason provided to Chairman Cross when Fujiwara Yuka rang him up several days ago and faxed the list of transfers' students over to the Cross Academy.

"Zero, what do you know about them?" Kaname questioned, handing the profiles of the new transfer students of the night-class over to his lover for reference.

"Nothing much, except that they were very loyal to the Fujiwara since the Heian period. Funny that Yuka would send them over, they are kind of like Ichijo and Aidou to you … in a way. Well, either way I reckon I would need to speak with them before making any assumptions to the reason behind their transfer…" Zero shrugged as he handed the profile back to Kaname Kuran, while he took a seat next to the pureblood and waited for further topic of discussion to be brought up by Kaien Cross.

"Right, anyway – the school has decided to start a new system. It will take over the current guardian's system in place; it is called the Student's Council. What do you think about it?" Kaien Cross said then, glancing specifically at Zero while he did so.

"Student's Council … I'm okay with it, I assumed that was the Fujiwara's opinion on the school's management issues?" Zero questioned.

"Why, yes… they say it's better if we could have a whole team to handle vampires-humans relationship on campus rather than relying on simply two guardians to maintain peace and harmony on school grounds." The Chairman responded.

"Well, it could work – I'm assuming that those who kept their memories intact from the fiasco earlier on would be a part of the council?" Zero commented.

"Yes, that is what we are planning to do… but the overall in charge would be you and Wakaba Sayori – that's who I have in mind to take over Yuuki's position." The Chairman added towards the end of the statement.

"I'm alright with your choice of candidate if the person in question had no objections to it." Zero said, while he could simply order for the girl to take up the role – he wanted the girl to make her own decision in it instead.

"I'm okay with the arrangement, if that means I could keep my room free from the dormitory manager's inspection round." Wakaba Sayori hurried to interject.

"Ah… no need to worry, the members' of the student's council would be shifting into the newly built dormitory building so there would be no inspection checks then." The Chairman hurried to reassure.

"I see… if that's all – may I be excused?" Wakaba Sayori started then, she felt so uncomfortable being the only human saved from Chairman Cross within the pureblood's Study.

"Sure, go ahead but leave behind the analysis of the last quarter sales' record for Fujiwara Electronics behind – I would like to do a screen through later on." Zero instructed.

"Will do, if there's nothing else – I shall take my leave now." Sayori nodded, before making her polite exit from the Study within the Kuran's estate.

The next two weeks was spend packing up and readying themselves for the trip back to the academy grounds, Akane ended up having to help her cousin packed because Ichijo Takuma was too swamped with his inheritances matters that he did not have time for packing at all. Every morning from 6.a.m. to 8.a.m…he would be stuck in cram school with Zero doing business fundamentals modules; from 9.a.m. onwards till noon – he would need to be in the building of Ichijo Enterprise to familiarize himself with the company's work.

From the said blond arrived back from office, he was half-dead to the world – sleeping off in 'la-la-land'. By the time he woke, it was about late evening and he need to read up on books on business management and spend time over case study situations that he barely had time for his precious mangas.

Akane really pity Takuma for it, but she was in no position to help – rather, she cannot help because Zero forbidden her to do so. However, Zero sends Risa Miyazaki over to assist her dear cousin so as to minimize the stress level on the blond. Nevertheless, Ichijo Takuma still had to end up sorting through half the work by his own means without any assistance from outsiders.

"Zero… I don't understand; why do you keep on insisting that I do everything on my own?" Ichijo Takuma finally had it in him to ask – one day before they are scheduled to return to the academy grounds.

"Simple, this is your family business – you need to learn and make your own decision. I forbid Akane to help you in any sense because there might be a conflict of interest, I am certain that you know company's documents are kept confidential to an extent. Besides, the Ichijo Takuma from her time back then has no one to help him with the business so I don't see any reason why you should engage outsiders' assistance to do it. I'm already making an exception to allow Risa to assist you on the sorting of documents, filings and scheduling matters – anything else more than that extent are highly frown upon." Zero responded in a logical manner.

"But… but you have people helping you, isn't it?" The green eyed blond protested in a half-whine manner.

"True, but Sayori doesn't make any decision on my behalf saved for all the socializing trips. Any decision making task I have to handle it by myself, if I can't – I would seek others' opinions. However, those opinions came from the company's management team – I would suggest for you to do the same. But I know it's difficult for you to do so, unlike the Fujiwara – the management team members of the Ichijo Enterprise consist of your grandfather's supporters and it is hard to gain recognition from their part and therefore you have no one to rely upon."

"Exactly, so how should I go about it then?" Ichijo Takuma frowned, throwing a look of annoyance down at the folder he was scanning through. As much as he hated to admit it, he was stuck – and consulting Kaname was out of the question. The pureblood was equally busy with his family businesses to be any aid for his problems, besides the issues between Kuran's Incorporation and Ichijo Enterprise was messy enough – he does not want to mess it up further.

"Your grandfather's supporters have children or even grand-children – right?" Zero questioned.

"Well… yes…why did you ask?"

"The elderly members in the family would one of these days kicked the bucket, am I right to say that?" Zero asked again.

"Yes, that's an understatement – isn't it?"

"How close or rather are you on good terms with the younger generations of those members on your grandfather's company management team?" Zero asked next.

"Good enough, I supposed…" Ichijo Takuma answered, before a light of recognition dawns in on him. "So you want me to approach them for opinions?"

"Exactly, socializing is always a part of business deals and strengthening ties between partners in business. There is no way that the elder generations are going to agree to your opinions, so try to get your hands on the younger ones. Revamping and restructuring was never done in an instant, it usually takes years to establish the fact – my advices for you now were to lie low and then strike when the opportunity comes about." Zero responded, patting the green eyed blond in an encouraging gesture on the shoulders before he left the dining room.

"Bloody hell… how on earth did Zero manage to gets so familiar with business management this fast?" Takuma could not help but wondered aloud in disbelief.

"His knowledge was there before; just need some refreshing – that's all. His mother holds a degree in the fields of business management and a diploma in marketing. In fact, Fujiwara Yukari used to hold the position of operations manager in Fujiwara Electronics Private Limited prior to her marriage with Kiryuu Kaoru, it was only then that she converted to doing full-time hunting job." Risa Miyazaki supplied helpfully as she entered the dining room.

"How did you know that?" Ichijo Takuma questioned with an arch of the eyebrow.

"My late mother – Fujiwara Ami worked under Yukari-san for a period of ten years before my father had it in him to take her on as a mistress after turning her in his drunken state…" Risa responded wistfully, before steering the topic away from her parentage's issue.

Unlike Ichijo Takuma, Kaname Kuran had an easier time sifting through his family businesses matters. Although, this was nothing he was familiar with in his past life as the ancestor to the Kuran Clan – it was nothing exceptionally hard for him to grasp either. He supposed he had his high level of IQ to thank for.

Thankfully though, there were not really a lot of cases to be dealing with pertaining to the council's issues. Politics was never his favorite area to touch on, but it cannot be help seeing as he had slaughter off the majority of the council members' without having a good back-up plan in mind. Hence, he was stuck doing most if not all the more sensitive matters pertaining to the council as of current.

Yuuki was still the same carefree self, but Kaname was thinking of training Yuuki up to deal with the humans' related issues. Speaking of which, he needs to speak with his lover pertaining to the issue of making their relationship known to the public soon – he had had enough of those marriage proposals coming in from the aristocrats' already.

Pinching the bridge of his nose wearily, Kaname Kuran reclined back in his working chair behind his work desk and closed his eyes briefly to rest his weary sight. That was exactly the sight that met Zero's eyes when the said hunter entered the Study of the Kuran's estate.

The sudden feel of fingers massaging the sides of his temples caused the pureblood prince to snap his eyes open in surprise, before he relaxed himself and allowed a sigh of relief to escape from his lips.

"Don't press yourself too much, the workload would always be there – take your time with it." Zero advices.

"I know… I could say the same for you." Kaname murmured, taking Zero's hands in his as he pressed a light kiss upon the face of his lover's hands.

"I'm only at managerial level, unlike you and Ichijo – both of you are seated on the chair of managing director as of current. Whereas, for me and Ichiru – we are only required to work my way up slowly to say… and besides, I'm not being burdened with the whole Fujiwara Corporation as of yet. I'm only dealing with Fujiwara Electronics at this point of time." Zero commented, in a deadpanned manner.

"Well then, what do you suggest that we do to keep me away from these piles of work down here?" Kaname smirked, devilishly handsome as he pulled his lover down onto his lap and captured Zero in a possessive and bruising kiss.

"I'll say we sleep, by that I don't mean sex either." With that Zero dragged the pureblood off to their room, and settled the man down for bed.

"Zero…"

"No, when I say for you to sleep – I literally mean it. Now you have two choices, either I knocked you out cold by force or I would stuff sleeping pills down your throat. You are tired and the fatigue is taking its toll on you. There is no absolute way am I going to succumb to your seduction acts at this moment of time." Zero's voice was stern and firm, leaving Kaname with no room for further argument.

"…I'm not Akira, you know?" Kaname's voice was dry; sounding a little irritated by the way his lover was addressing him.

"I know, but with the way you are behaving these days – it's obvious that you are trying to let me think otherwise. If behaving like a kid is what you intend to do, treating you the way I'm treating Akira would be my solution to it." Zero responded his tone flat and with a glare of his.

"Okay… okay, you win – I'll do nothing but sleep." Kaname sighed, giving in eventually to his lover's request – as much as he hated to admit, he had to concede that his fatigue was making him behaving like a whiny kid in front of his lover.

"Good, see that you stick to your words. Now I am going to check on the twins, then I am going to come back in here to supervise you. If I found you to be still awake by the time I got back here, I would most definitely dose you with sleeping pills." Zero warned, before leaving the room to check on the twins'.

Ichijo Takuma was still in the dining room with Risa Miyazaki, probably still in the task of sorting through the pile of documents relating to the recent business reports from Ichijo Enterprise. Shiki Senri and Touya Rima were out for another photo-shoot job for the day and so were absent from the estate.

Ruka Souen was engage in a conversation with Akatsuki Kain on who knows what, Ayano and Sayori were nowhere in sight – Zero was willing to bet that they were both in their rooms resting by now. The twins were engaged in an intense game of chess, while Aidou was busy bickering with Akane over some random topics of discussion.

"Akane, get the boys down to bed after they finished this round of game." Zero instructed, bringing a cease fire to one of those routine bickering session between Aidou Hanabusa and the eldest of the future trio.

"Roger…" Akane does an act of a mock-salute to Zero, before turning back to Aidou Hanabusa and started bickering again.

Zero shakes his head at Akane's actions, not wanting to poke his nose into the bickering session again. He swore – Aidou Hanabusa brought out the worst in Akane at times, they fought over random things like which TV channels to watch, which book to read etc. The twins blamed it on the immature behavior of Aidou Hanabusa at this stage of time. Though, Zero believed that Akane just enjoyed 'baiting' Aidou like her cousin enjoys doing.

Date started: 28/1/2013

Date completed: 29/1/2013


	53. Chapter 52 - Last Chapter

Title: Visitors from the Future

Genre: General/Romance/Friendship

Rating: T

Pairings: Zero/Kaname

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.

Author's notes: This is it, the last chapter for Visitors of the Future – the twins and Akane going back to their own time now. Sequel will be up soon, and it will focus on Zero's and Kaname relationship without the trio around. I'm still planning…probably it won't be up too soon, I need to get some planning done first

Chapter 52 – In which the trio return to their own time…

On the morning of 10th May, all the luggages were being loaded into the car that will bring them back to the academy grounds. The journey was taken in silence as it was morning, and majority of the members were actually too sleepy to be creating havoc. They took a total of two cars, with the Kiryuu-Kuran family in one, and the rest of the night class members in another.

Matsushita Ayano and Wakaba Sayori took the subway train instead; their luggage though was transfer over to the academy together with the rest of the belongings of the night-class members. Due to the trip back to the academy, Ichijo Takuma had skipped out on his daily trip to Ichijo Enterprise.

"Damn… I'm seriously going to need a secretary if I'm going to be in the company every morning." Ichijo Takuma muttered aloud, the current secretary was his grandfather's and he didn't feel comfortable assigning duties for the said person to carry out. That guy would always eye him critically as though judging him whenever he issued orders, and to be honest those gazes he was being subjected towards unnerved him most of the time.

"Well, just ask Kiryuu whether you can use Risa for a long term basis then. I am sure he won't mind…" Akatsuki Kain throws out to the green eyed blond, since it was apparent that the said vice-president of the night-class had been using the said female vampire as a secretary over the past one month or so.

"Yeah… I think I'll do just that." Ichijo nodded how he wished he could have just sacked off his grandfather's trusted subordinates and employed new personnel for the job. However, Zero had said it would be best to hold it off for a while and Kaname had seconded that opinion.

They had both mentioned something about training up new employees for the position could be a chore, so until he had managed to grasp the big picture of the whole situation it would be best not to touch any of the current employees in the company.

The journey back to the academy grounds by car took them approximately six hours doubled the time used for subway trains. Henceforth, by the time they arrived at the school – the two human girls' has already reached and was more or less done with the settling in procedures.

"Well, the Moon Dormitory is ready for usage. We have basically cleaned up the area before your arrival, and this is the keys to the building." Wakaba Sayori started, handing the keys over to the president of the night-class – Kaname Kuran.

"Thank you for your effort in tidying up the place for us, your luggage is in the back of the car trunk – feel free to retrieve them by your own means." Kaname responded, nodding towards the hazel brown haired girl.

Zero and Ichiru had both been given a room for usage in the Star Dormitory, the newly built dorm building for students. Although, Zero highly doubted he would be using his new room much – it was apparent that Kaname had no intention of releasing him from the Moon Dormitory. He would be lucky enough that the former still allowed him to take classes under the day-class scheme rather than forcing him into the night-class schedules.

The twins were still sleepy, and therefore they were being carried into the dormitory building by Zero and Ichijo Takuma respectively. Kaname, on the other hand, busied himself with the task of allocating rooms to the members of the night-class again.

The twins, being back in the Moon Dormitory are back to sharing the quarters with the pureblood prince of the night-class. Akane, on the other hand, would be sharing her room with Yuuki – the rest of the arrangement was more or less similar to how it has been before. The two new transfer students would be arriving only later on in the day, probably when night falls arrived.

Zero left the Moon Dormitory for a tour about the campus while Kaname was busy with the task of reviewing rules and regulations for the night-class members to follow. Ichijo, on the other hand, set aside his own issues at hand and assist Kaname in the night-class administration matters.

During the tour of the newly renovated campus, Zero noticed the obvious heightening of the school's academic building – and the class lists posted on the notice board near the school gate for new students to check their classes. Next, he checked on the class schedules of the day-class and night-class members before smirking.

The day-class students' schedules were more or less about the same, with core modules in English; Mother Tongue; Mathematics; and Science. Minor subjects in the fields of Geography; History; and Social Studies also there's the elective subjects of Art; Music and Economics. Non-examinable subject but compulsory to attend – Physical Education…

The night-class schedules consists of mainly subjects to learn about human behavior and lifestyle, since the vampires are mainly learning about how to co-exist with humans population. However, there are a few selected changes made in the class schedules too – like the additional class of Economics; Organizational Behavior; and Interpersonal Skills.

"Ichijo would cry…" Zero mumbled to himself, the three additional modules are related to business fields of studies. Among them, Economics was a core module – only at diploma level, they split it into Micro-Economics, and Macro-Economics. The other two were mainly electives modules and it as to do with office relationships.

True to Zero's prediction, Ichijo Takuma's reaction to the new schedule was one of utmost depression.

"Here I thought I could have escaped from the hell-hole of the business management crash course by coming back to school here…" Ichijo muttered under his breath, glaring at his new schedule in irritation.

"Well, stop complaining and get used to it already. Cross Academy are now affiliated with Fujiwara Gakuen, so definitely the schedules would have a few changes here and there. Besides, Organizational Behavior and Interpersonal Skills are already in the Night-Class Schedules right from the beginning as an elective subject, now the only changes made to the schedules was to make them a compulsory subjects for all night-class students to study.

After all, co-existence starts with understanding one another, isn't it? I am sure Ichijo Enterprise has humans' employees too, right? At least, on the outer-most layer of the enterprise… positions such as receptionists; salesmen etc. To minimize company's staff turnover rate, understanding them is essential. Why else do you think the Fujiwara are so successful in this area?" Zero commented from his position next to Kaname Kuran.

"Zero is right, and Chairman Cross did spoke to me about the amendments made on the schedules. In fact, I had agreed to have them on the night-class students' curriculum. All of you here are successors to your parents' business, it would be better to have some inkling as to what you might be dealing with in future – even if it was only in the form of theoretical manner." Kaname concluded, bringing the evening's discussion on the new curriculum to a close.

The Kiryuu-Kuran household of five were over at the Cross residence for a late dinner when Fujiwara Yuka popped by for an impromptu visit. The two boys of six immediately fell silent, and Akane stopped in her middle of a ranting session about Akira's bad habit of picking out the beans from his plate of chicken pie. The future trio's sudden change in demeanor alerted both Kaname and Zero to the possibility of an impending separation with the trio.

"A-ra… Yuka-chan, what brings you over at this late of time?" The Chairman immediately whizzes over to greet the female pureblood.

"I've brought with me some news, and also to bring along the two new transfer students for the night-class." Fujiwara Yuka responded, matter-of-factly – looking at Zero with intent as she stressed on the term 'news'.

Her eyes scanned the surrounding until it landed upon the figure of Akane Kiryuu and the twins, and then her expression took on one of solemnity. The future trio shared a common look among themselves before Akane spoke up on behalf of them.

"I assume the date has been set?"

Yuka nodded, before responding. "Yes, the date's set – in fact; it's just the next full moon."

"I see…" Akane made a knowing sound before turning her attention back to the meal and continue eating in silence. The boys mirrored her actions soon after.

"Right, anyway – Zero; this is Sakaki Miyako and Tachibana Kenjiro. Both of them were quite knowledgeable of the operations procedures in Fujiwara Electronics. If you came across any questions, feel free to approach them for help. That's the reason I sends them over…and do help to inform Ichiru that my mother is requesting for him and his fiancée to drop by the main house for a visit." Yuka told the silver-haired guardian, before bidding them farewell and departed from the academy grounds.

"So…Zero-sama, what should we do now?" The two newcomers questioned, after sharing a look between them-selves.

"…Sit down and have dinner first, we will talk later." Zero instructed, and the Chairman gleefully head into the kitchen to bring out new sets of cutlery for the new guests.

"Akane, what was all that about?" Zero asked, once Fujiwara Yuka departed from site and was no longer in vision range.

"Later… not now, I'll fill you in on the details later on in time." Akane said, darting a look over to the two newcomers.

"Fine…we will speak later then." Zero agreed reluctantly, somehow he had nagging feeling tugging at his navel – it seems like whatever was going to happen, he would not be enjoying the information.

Kaname Kuran, on the other hand could only make a wild guess – judging from the look of seriousness on the trio's. The pureblood was willing to bet anything against the fact that it concerns their departure from this time period. Truth be told, he was not looking forward to the moment at all…

After dinner, the group of five made their way back to the Moon Dormitory with the two new students of the night-class tailing behind. Upon their entry into the said dorm building, Kaname beckoned for Ichijo to take charge of the two new students – assigning them with rooms and all. The Kiryuu-Kuran family then retreated into the privacy of the pureblood's chamber suite, there – Akane relayed the information she had gained from Fujiwara Yuka earlier on in time.

Turns out, Kaname's guess had hits target after all – the next full moon would be when the trio departed from the current time frame and head back to their own future time-line.

"So when's the next full moon coming then?" Zero asked, trying his best not to sound emotional by the impending separation to come in time.

"One week from now, I think…" Akane answered, not exactly sure – herself. She need to double check on the issue later on.

"Well, there's still one week left… all the more to treasure it, isn't it?" Zero commented, patting the boys' on their head – drawing them out from the gloom clouds that hung above their head.

"Yeah, that's right – all good things would eventually come to an end. It's only a matter of time, and besides – we are bound to see one another again." Kaname Kuran added, with a small smile.

"Exactly, who knows what we would end up seeing once we are back in the future." Akane piped up with extra cheerfulness.

"Yes, who knows – we might get a few more additions to the family, isn't it?!" Akira suddenly interjected his mood high again. Beside him, Subaru Kiryuu rolled his eyes at his twin's words as he muttered something like 'there he goes again…' much to the amusement of Kaname Kuran. Zero, on the other hand, did not bother to know what Akira was yapping on about.

That very night following the discussion of the trio's impending departure from the time-frame was spend meaningfully, Akane was busy spilling forth details concerning the twins' embarrassing moments when they were still in diapers stage.

Both Kaname and Zero also reached to a common agreement that the trio's impending departure news were to be keep under wraps, away from the knowledge of the night-class members. No point creating more gloom around the building, and while Zero and Kaname themselves were quite sad to let the trio goes off but they knew – they need to go. Besides, they are their future kids so they are bound to meet once again at some point in the future.

The next one week were spends mainly on family bonding, or group activities. Zero and Kaname even set aside their work duties, to play with the twins and often have dinner over at the Cross Residence. When the night-class members questioned the reason behind their constant gluing to the kids' side – Kaname simply declared it was a family week and leaves it at that. Three days before the trio's scheduled departure, Zero decided to let the twins off the diet plan – allowing them the freedom to choose what they wanted to eat.

"So do you have any idea how the three of you are going to go back?" Zero asked during dinner, the day before the trio's scheduled departure over at the Cross Residence.

"Eh… no idea, but Yuka-sama says that I would know when it happened." Akane responded, feeling kind of puzzled herself.

"I see…then are there any further instructions from her? Says for example, the venue to be waiting etc?" Zero prompted.

"She just told me to stay in the Moon Dormitory's library and wait for the moment to come." Akane answered, frowning as she tried to recall the pureblood's words from before.

"Any specific timing in particular…? I gathered we would need to restrict the number of users in there for tomorrow…" Kaname Kuran pressed on.

"Between 10 to 12 mid-nights, I think… since that's when I started the ritual back then too…" Akane responded, sounding slightly uncertain.

"Then I think it's better to ban anyone from using the library when night falls approached." Zero told Kaname after thinking for a moment, it is after all better to be safe than sorry.

"Indeed, I'll just say I need the library for personal usage and no one was to intrude on us tomorrow then." Kaname responded.

"That would work, I supposed…" Akane murmured as she bites into her share of mango pudding.

"Alright, enough of the gloomy talk already – now why don't you lot help me out with the task of re-organizing the books in my Study?" Chairman Cross interrupted then.

"…Why the sudden desire to re-arrange the books?" Zero questioned, regarding the Chairman strangely.

"I want to spend some time with them too… it's not fair that both Kaname-kun and you hogged on to them all the time. They are considered my grand children too, you know?!" The Chairman whined.

"…Fine, you win… but I certainly hoped to see them back in one piece by tonight." Zero responded, before bringing the empty dishes back into the kitchen to clean up.

"Don't worry; I'll keep an eye on both the Chairman and Akira." Akane responded, she knew by now how clumsy the Chairman and Akira both can be at times.

Later that night, after the twins had been lull to bed by yet another tale of 'Merchant of Venice' – Zero spend a good long while doing nothing but staring at the sight of the two boys.

"I would most definitely miss them…" Zero commented, as his mind went back to that fateful day when the trio first appeared in front of them claiming to be their future off-springs.

"So will I… in fact, I bet everyone here would miss having them around. They did make a very big difference to our lives…" Kaname commented, as he pressed a kiss to his silver-haired lover's cheeks.

"Indeed… I would never have thought it possible for us to come this far if they didn't appear that day…" Zero mused, a smile playing on his lips as he recalled all the happenings over the last six months.

No matter how Zero had yearn for the time to stop right there and then, the morning hours would still comes by when dawn breaks.

Akane spend the morning penning down a letter to her cousin, explaining the reason behind their decision to not let anyone in on the information pertaining to their impending departure. Then she wished him luck with his 'business' and finally she unravels the mystery behind his future wife's identity.

After which, she posts the letter out after making a trip down to the town area returning only in the evening hours. Then she holed herself up in the library of the Moon Dormitory together with her younger siblings, and waited for the moment to arrive.

"Kaname-sama, do me a favor – will you?" Akane asked.

"What kind of favor?" The pureblood leader questioned.

"Please sign on this, and acknowledge the fact that I had completed my second year of high school education. I really have no intention to repeat the syllabus again…" Akane responded, pulling out a acknowledgement slip from somewhere and show it to the pureblood heir of the Kuran Clan.

"…Fine, give it over." Kaname responded, and signed on the acknowledgement slip without a moment of hesitation.

"Thank you." Akane took the signed slip back and folded it before tucking it into her skirt's pocket.

When the mantle clock struck ten, Akane felt a twist in the air almost instantly. She knew then, it was time for their departure.

"Akira, Subaru – it's time. Says your goodbye to Zero and Kaname…" Akane started, smiling down at the boys' encouragingly.

Akira and Subaru shared a look between them, before heading up front to hug each parent once before stepping back to where Akane waited for them as they bid their farewell to the Zero Kiryuu and Kaname Kuran of this time frame. No sooner have they completed their farewell acts, the wall where the clock was hung – slowly split open, and a black hole appears.

Gushes of strong wind blows out from the hole, and Akane gathered the two boys closer to her as they ventured closer to the gigantic hole in the wall. With one last lingering look in their young parents' direction, the trio turned towards the hole and stepped through it without another backward glance. As soon as the trio entered the hole, the gushes of wind stopped and the twist in the air was gone.

When Zero and Kaname had it in them to look again, the trio was no longer in sight. The whole library were engulfed in silence, the only sign of the trio's presence earlier on in the room was that unfinished game of chess sitting abandoned on the table.

"They're gone, isn't it?" Zero whispered, trying his best to blink back the tears threatening to spill forth now that the trios are back in their own time.

"Yes, they're gone… but one of these days we will meet them again." Kaname said, giving Zero's shoulders a comforting squeeze.

"Damn… I should've taken a picture of them just now." Zero muttered aloud, now regretting that he didn't bother to snap any of the trios' pictures prior to their departure.

"Don't worry; I'm sure the Chairman had his private stash of the kids' photos somewhere hidden in his place. You can always go and 'convince' him into the idea of sparing you some of those snap-shots he had taken when you weren't looking." Kaname told his silver-haired lover truthfully.

"And how did you know that?" Zero arched an eyebrow up in question.

"I would know because I'd seen him snapping those pictures during dinner period over the last few days with my own eyes." Kaname responded dryly.

"Aa… and here I was wondering whether you send any of your flock over to spy on him." Zero throws back in a mocking tone of voice.

"As though I would send Seiren off to do something this insignificant..." Kaname rolled his eyes at his lover's words, before steering the subject of conversation elsewhere.

The rest of the night-class members did not find out about the trio's departure until the following day, and as expected Yuuki was in a grumpy mood for the whole evening throwing looks of annoyance towards her two brotherly figures in the past 10 years of her life as Yuuki Cross.

"Ichijo Vice-President, there's a letter for you." The maid whom collected the daily mail from the administration office returned with an envelope addressed to Ichijo Takuma, on Wednesday evening slightly before the class change-over period.

"Thank you…" The green eyed blond greeted back in response, before reaching for the letter addressed to him. Inwardly, he was wondering who the person sending him the mail was – since after his grandfather's death; he didn't think anyone working in the Ichijo Residence would be thinking of sending him mails to update him of the happenings within the estate.

"Who's it from?" Shiki Senri questioned, curious to know who the sender of the mail was.

"Wait… gives me a minute to scan through first…" Ichijo Takuma responded, as his eyes scanned the contents of the letter swiftly and efficiently. When his eyes landed upon the name signing off towards the end of the letter, he was completely dumbfounded.

"So, who is it?" Shiki poke his room-mate and jolted the blond back to the plane of reality.

"Akane… letter's from Akane, apparently – she send it out before leaving for her own time." The blond grinned before passing the letter over to Yuuki Kuran, for the pureblood princess to read. Seems like Akane had most if not all of their possible reactions figured out and hence her decision to pen down this letter, posting it out on the same day they were scheduled to depart for the future.

Akane was the one whom decided to keep their departure from Yuuki, claiming to say that if the pureblood princess were to find things out prior to their departure – the atmosphere hanging around the dormitory walls would be too depressing and gloomy for their liking. After all, nobody enjoys doing farewells.

Last but not least, she apologized for her decision to not reveal their departure issue to Ichijo Takuma personally and instead had chosen to pen him a letter instead. Towards the end of the letter, Akane wishes him luck on his managing of the newly inherited Ichijo Enterprise and also well-wishes for his still non-existent romance life.

The post script was written in small and cursive form, but it did not hinder him from deciphering it at all. The name 'Risa Miyazaki' stood out to him almost immediately, and although he was still a little skeptical about what Akane revealed to him towards the end of the letter – he decided to leave things be for the moment.

"Wow, what's written in the post-script? It's too cursive; I can't make any sense of it." Yuuki Kuran complained aloud, and the green eyed blond took that opportunity to grab the letter back for himself.

"Hey, I wasn't done reading it yet!" The princess wailed in protest.

"This is my letter that you are reading, so please kindly refrain from reading anything that doesn't concern your part." Ichijo Takuma interjected kindly, hurrying to stuff the letter in his pant's pocket.

"Yuuki, Ichijo was kind enough to let you have a scan through of the letter. Do not cross the line, it was after all a letter addressed to him and probably the content were written on a more personal scale. Would you enjoy it if someone were to read a letter addressed for your eyes in details?" Zero cut in before Yuuki started to argue her point, again.

"…I apologized, Ichijo-sempai… but I really missed Akane." Yuuki sniffed, her voice cracking up with the emotions trying to boil over.

"I know… everyone of us missed having them around, but if Zero and Kaname can take it in stride…I don't see why we can't do the same." Ichijo advised.

"Yes, and they are from the future – so we are bound to meet them eventually." Aidou Hanabusa interjected from behind Yuuki, he hated dealing with emotional woman – it gives him a headache.

"Still, it wouldn't be the same again…" Yuuki commented, she had grown to like Akane as a friend but the next time around they met – she would be considered an elder to Akane; and the Akane taken in then would not be the same to the one that had 'visited' them here in the past then.

"Yes, it wouldn't be the same but think of it this way. You would be able to get back to her for all the things she had done to you all these while, isn't it?" Aidou suggested in a gleeful manner that earned him a warning look from his beloved pureblood leader.

The blue eyed blond gulped nervously, before mouthing something similar to 'I'm only trying to cheer Yuuki-sama up…' and then doing a surrendering gesture to Kaname to proof his innocence in this matter.

"Alright, enough of all these chattering – it's about time for the change over." Kaname said, bringing a stop to the endless chatters among the night-class members. His silver haired lover by now had disappeared from sight, probably off to control the shrieking banshees from the day-class. Those whom are oblivious to their nature, that is – there are some of the day class students who chooses to have their memories from the Rido fiasco intact. Those are the ones that now stop idolizing them, and generally would keep their distances from them.

These minorities are part of the newly established student council within the campus, and of course the newly elected president for the Student Council just happens to be Zero Kiryuu. The Vice-President for the student council was none other than Zero's personal assistant – Wakaba Sayori, treasurer would be Ichiru Kiryuu and Secretary for the student council is Matsushita Ayano. Basically, the student's council is to assist the school in managing student's welfare issues. In other words, to keep track of the co-existing policy on campus and see to it that nobody broke the rules and regulations sets in place by the school governing board.

The night-class has their own supervising system in place, and generally the head person in charge would be Kaname and Ichijo – since they are the President and Vice-President for the Night-Class. However, Kaname was thinking of allowing Yuuki to slowly take over the task of maintaining peace and harmony within the campus – as he has other priorities duties to attend. Regardless of the circumstances, it would not change the fact that he was still the overall person in charge for the Moon Dormitory and affairs relating to the vampires on campus.

All in all, life still has to goes on despite the trio's absence – but one thing's for sure, nobody would ever forget about their being here in the past.

Date started: 29/1/2013

Date completed: 29/1/2013

P.S: Interested to find out more about KanZe life after the trio's departure? Want to know what's going to happen next? Stay tuned, for the Sequel 'Embracing the Future' to come in the near future


	54. Chapter 54 - Sequel Information

Dear Readers,

This is to serve as a notification to everyone that the sequel to 'Visitors from the Future' is now up on . It's entitled 'Embracing the Future', feel free to go and read it. Reviews/comments are very much appreciated. :)

Regards,

xiaoj


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